PARIS, France \u2014 They are fashion\u2019s new celebrity aristocracy, the sons and daughters of stars who are themselves becoming the kings and queens of the catwalk shows.
From Lily-Rose Depp and Will Smith\u2019s daughter Willow \u2014 the faces of Chanel \u2014 to the Beckham boys and Sylvester Stallone\u2019s two daughters modeling for Dolce & Gabbana, celebrity offspring are luxury labels\u2019 new not-so-secret weapon.
With their huge followings on social media and instant name-recognition, these millennials born in the limelight have become the perfect avatars for advertising campaigns.
British actor Jude Law\u2019s daughter Iris is the new face of Burberry having followed her brother Rafferty in modeling, while the daughters of singer Lionel Richie, Cindy Crawford and even Bob Dylan\u2019s grandson have all embarked on catwalk careers.
Michael Jackson\u2019s daughter Paris turned up in the French capital this week for a photo shoot, adding her name to a bulging celebrity model roll call that includes the daughter of Oasis singer Noel Gallagher, the son of Isabelle Adjani and Daniel Day-Lewis, the daughter of Nastassja Kinski and Quincy Jones, and the sons of Sean Penn and Pierce Brosnan.
The list is endless and seemingly inexhaustible, with marketing experts maintaining that young consumers cannot get enough of celebrity dynasties.
You just have to look at the Kardashians, said Gachoucha Kretz, professor of fashion marketing at the HEC business school in Paris, to see how the model works.
Kardashian effect
They have converted their reality television fame into fashion hard currency, with Kim Kardashian and her half sister Kendall Jenner now established stars of the firmament, their every wardrobe choice scrutinised on social media.
Brands hope to piggyback on \u201cthe popular fascination with these tribes and families\u201d, Kretz said.
With no problem about name recognition \u201cthere is much less marketing to do\u201d, she added. \u201cThe associations are already created.\u201d
With their Instagram or Twitter endorsements of their favored brands, they become the ultimate \u201cinfluencers\u201d to help push demand.
Aged only 17, Brooklyn Beckham has nine million followers on Instagram. After two years as a model he has branched out into fashion photography, shooting an advertising campaign for Burberry this summer that made headlines around the world.
Even fashion\u2019s biggest players are happy to play along with the family fame game. Chanel\u2019s Karl Lagerfeld, for instance, has been a enthusiastic nepotist, hiring Depp, Smith and Jenner, and taking former supermodel Ines de la Fressange\u2019s daughter Violette d\u2019Urso as his muse.
Self-replicating elite
\u201cThe tabloids and celebrity magazines love these famous families and that assures media coverage,\u201d said Aurore Gorius, co-author of a French book \u201cSons and Daughters of\u2026\u201d
The 2015 book casts a critical eye on the public\u2019s fascination with this \u201cphenomenon of elites reproducing themselves and blocking social mobility.
\u201cThese children have grown up under the eyes of the media and we are curious what will become of them,\u201d she said.
Trends expert Cecile Poignant, who teaches at the New School Parsons Paris, said there has been a gradual push towards the \u201cstarification of childhood\u201d over the last 15 years.
She said it began with photographer Annie Leibovitz\u2019s famous front cover of a naked Demi Moore pregnant for Vanity Fair magazine.
\u201cFor a lot of models and celebrities, the child has become something of a fashion accessory, a must have,\u201d Poignant told AFP.
But could the omnipresence of celebrity offspring now finally lead to a backlash.
Fashion student Marie Richaud said she found it irksome that their fame \u201cis not based on merit but family links. It excludes\u201d.
Even so the 25-year-old follows several second generation celebs on Instagram even if \u201cshe doesn\u2019t identify with them\u201d.
\u201cThese children who seems to have had it all give people something to dream about. But at the same time they can just as easily annoy,\u201d said Poignant.
\u201cDo any of them have any talent or is their name enough (to succeed)? We will have to wait and see,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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