Chic 'n' Little

Their mothers may be only a Givenchy away from the best-dressed list, their fathers bespoke down to their brogues. But for children until recently, haute couture loomed as far in the distance as puberty. Then Paris discovered the minimarket.

First to lure les enfants was Couturier Pierre Cardin, who presented a complete line of super-chic children's clothes two years ago. Cardin's collection was as high-priced as it was high fashion. A miniature version of the famous "cos-mocorps" jump suit cost $70, a boy's tweed suit $80. Orders did not exactly flood in. Taking second thought, Cardin began working closely with his manufacturers, finally succeeded in cutting his prices almost in half. By way of celebration, he opened a special children's boutique this month, directly across Paris' elegant Faubourg St. Honore from his grownup salon. There, potential clients can rattle around in toy racing cars or tumble with giant Teddy bears, while mothers hit the racks with new enthusiasm. Now a jersey dress is a mere $36, a tweed suit about $40. Best news of all: children who do not live in Paris, and hardly ever make it over for the collections, can get the same bargains at any of Cardin's 200 outlets around the world.

Small Issue. Parents who care to shop around do not have to stop with Cardin. Ted Lapidus' "Mini-Ted" fashions can make almost any boy look soigne, and Carven's "Ma Fille" collection puts mothers and daughters into matching, high-style camaraderie. Jacques Esterel's "neglige snob" would get father and son in the act, too, with everyone wearing identical family jerseys. And then there is Marc Bohan's "Baby Dior" line. It's not every two-year-old who can wear (or whose parents can afford) a white lace dress costing $100, or a white rabbit coat for $250.

Nor is every newborn baby in line for the de luxe set of toilet articles (talcum powder, oil, cologne, cleansing milk, soap and a small embroidered towel) that goes for $35. But those in the market for a single diaper (emblazoned, of course, with the Dior griffe) can get away for only $3; a gold safety pin to go with the Diorpers costs an extra $3. Price, obviously, is of small issue to the small issue of Morocco's King Hassan; his three daughters are regular "Baby Dior" patrons, as are Iran's Prince Reza (for whom Bohan designed a minituxedo) and Sophia Loren's nearly year-old son.

Designing for children is no pushover. Even in Paris, "Babies have no necks," sighed Cardin's top tot seamstress last week. "They have no waists, and no chests." Her boss, however, sees his work cut out for him, and no way to avoid it. Haute couture for children, Cardin explains, "was a perfectly logical, even indispensable step. The couturier's primary preoccupation is to impose his style. I did it first with women, then with men. It was only natural."

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