Why does a toddler need a $90 cashmere romper?

How about fashion week for baby? The fancy baby clothes and merchandise market is booming. Little Ethan and Emily are now sporting velvet, cashmere, and silk because they have parents who make lots of dough and want their kid to reflect that abundance. According to Michael Silverstein, vice president of Boston Consulting Group, he estimates the high-end baby market at $45 billion.

Those jumping into the posh baby clothes game include Disney, whose partnering with luxe Icky Baby to sell in the likes of Nordstroms and Bloomingdales, and Gymboree with their Janie and Jack stores.

Besides parents with more mulah, another contributing factor driving the demand for expensive baby fashion are the tabloids touting the fashions of celebrities' babies. That t-shirt Shiloh Jolie-Pitt was wearing on her magazine cover debut was $42. Petit Tresor is a favorite of the celebs where a cashmere hoodie will set you back $210, and a crib bedding set about another $600.

I can't think of a faster way to create a beauty and material obsessed human than to start them off in expensive clothing or baby stuff they really don't need. The message that you are plugging into their heads from day one is that "you need expensive things in order to matter." I'm all for having nice stuff, but it's also important to teach the child that all this material stuff does not define who they are, and that they do not need it in order to be loved. In my opinion, all this fancy clothing stuff is more about the parents need to show off rather than for the benefit of the kid. Giving your kid "the best" should be more about the quality of time and love you give them, not literally the shirt you put on their backs.

And you're going to buy something just because a celebrity's kid is wearing the same thing? That will not make you or your kid cooler. It makes you a "Me too." Kids are people not little dolls to dress up and parade around at the country club or at the Mommy and Me tea to one up your neighbors. Seriously, why does a kid need to have a wardrobe that consists of $50 onsies, $200 hoodies, and $500 blankets? To have one nice outfit for the family picture goes over, but just because you can is not a real reason that makes sense to me.