When people are 4 years old, their biggest accomplishments usually start with successfully putting on clothes by themselves for the first time or making a finger painting worth putting on the fridge.

But Sydney Keiser, a 4-year-old, Instagram-famous, paper-fashion designer, also known as Mayhem, has something much bigger up her sleeve — which is most likely very well-draped. Children designing children’s clothing has become a recent trend in the industry and will consequently have a huge influence in the fashion world.

The young and budding designer was recently hired by J.Crew to help create a special collection for its children’s line, Crewcuts. Mayhem will have a nine-piece collection including clothing, shoes and accessories — and tons of glitter and sparkles — which will launch in the spring.

In an article in Harper’s Bazaar, Jenny Cooper, head designer at Crewcuts, spoke out about the brand’s latest collaboration.

“When we met with Mayhem for the first time, we were really curious to see how she would work and were amazed to watch this barely 4-year-old girl start meticulously folding the pleats on a skirt and placing stones very specifically and carefully on a top she had just fashioned around herself.”

Mayhem is only one of the numerous children, many of whom who are under the age of 10, who are taking the fashion world by storm. In the past two years, we have seen a surge in the number of children who have influenced the fashion industry.

Many of these youngsters are the children of celebrities who also have a huge influence on the fashion industry: North West, Blue Ivy, Suri Cruise and countless others.

Since their parents are already fashion superstars, these children have started their fashion education at an early age, practically since birth. They sit front row at runway shows, attend red carpet events, wear designer clothes, have high fashion photo shoots and have their outfits perfectly styled for them.

They have even had famous designers offer to design high couture dresses and outfits for them — under the age of 5. I could only dream of something like that happening to me, as someone definitely over the age of 5.

Other children — those who are less famous — have taken a different route to showcase their super advanced, and uber impressive, sense of style: blogs.

Blogs are popping up everywhere featuring toddlers dressing to the nines, wearing anything from skinny jeans to mixed-print ensembles and super sparkly hair accessories. Some of the more popular children’s clothing blogs include Heart + Habit, Children With Swag and Ladys & Gents, all featuring kids who look like they walked straight out of a catalog.

It seems that now more than ever it is important for kids to look as stylish as their parents. Gone are the days where a floral skirt and little T-shirt were acceptable children’s garb. Now it’s important for kids to incorporate elements of layering and mixing patterns, among other things, into their outfits to be considered fashionable children.

Because of this new trend, major stores have developed their own lines of children’s clothing and those that already had them have expanded their lines to fulfill the demand to have a stylish child.

Taking your kid to shop for clothes at Gap, H&M, J.Crew and Ralph Lauren has become more of the norm than taking them to, say, Gymboree or The Children’s Place. These larger retail stores have more of an adult sense of style in their children’s clothing, which has quickly become popular.

In Mayhem’s case, she is the one who designs all the fashions — something that she started for fun because she wanted to. She has a natural knack for fashion and kids need to be able to foster their own creativity.

Alexis McDonell is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at admcdone@syr.edu.

Published on January 12, 2015 at 12:01 am