Travis
Doug Henwood wrote:
> BN 00:15
> For Manhattan Teens, Dad's Bonus Means Money in the (Prada) Bag
> By Cotten Timberlake and Lisa Kassenaar
>
>
> Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- When Sydney Ramsden complained she didn't have a
> purse for her 13th birthday dinner at Manhattan's `21' Club last year,
> her mother bought her a black nylon bag -- a $230 Prada ``pochette.''
>
> ``It went perfectly with my outfit,'' says Sydney, an eighth-grader at
> a private, Upper East Side girls' school who has since added a pink
> Prada pocketbook to her accessory wardrobe. For Christmas, she wants
> Louis Vuitton.
>
> Teenagers are the new kids on the block for the luxury stores on
> Madison and Fifth avenues, where retailers pay the world's highest
> rents. Fueled by mom's and dad's credit cards, girls are snapping up
> $1,500 bags and $480 cashmere tracksuits, helping drive record sales
> for companies such as Prada SpA of Milan and Paris-based LVMH Moet
> Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
>
> The young customers include daughters of Wall Street bankers and
> lawyers, set to splurge into 2006 as their parents collect more than
> $17.5 billion in year-end bonuses from firms such as Merrill Lynch &
> Co., the biggest U.S. brokerage, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., this
> year's No. 1 mergers adviser.
>
> For Sydney's 13th birthday, Susan and Dan Ramsden also bought a $250
> Juicy Couture argyle sweater and a $295 chunky silver necklace from
> New York-based Tiffany & Co., the biggest U.S. chain for high-end
> jewelry. Accessories for their daughter, who wears a uniform to
> school, run about $1,500 a year, says Susan Ramsden, 41.