A fashion-obsessed mother yesterday defended spending over £20,000 on designer clothes for her son – aged just EIGHT.
Vicky Antonia, 31, has dressed son Zack exclusively in top end brands from birth, including Armani, D&G, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Prada.
She has spent £5,000 on trainers including three pairs of the same Ralph Lauren ones – so he could keep wearing them as he GREW.
She has also paid out £10,000 on designer jeans and T-shirts plus £5,000 on accessories – including a £100 Christian Dior baby bottle.
Zack has more than 200 pairs of designer shoes, including a £200 pair of limited edition Evisu trainers, and even his SWIMMING TRUNKS are Armani.
Vicky admits she was spending up to £1,000 A WEEK on him – even though he doesn’t CARE what he wears.
Vicky’s spending is already twice the £11,000 parents on average fork out on clothes for their children before the age of 21.
If she carries on at her current rate she can expect to spend a whopping £50,000 on Zack’s clothes by the time he leaves home.
The only child also has TWO ROOMS full of toys to entertain him and pals at his home in Epping, Essex.
Vicky’s friends and family have begged her to curb her wild spending – and teach Zack that how you look and dress is not the most important thing in life.
But she says she can’t resist dressing her boy like a “doll” and argues that far from being spoiled he is learning the importance of generosity.
She also insisted that his designer outfits made him popular at school.
Vicky said: “I know it must sound like I am spoiling him, but I just want him to look his best, what is wrong with making your son look good?
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“I just didn’t know that there was any other way. I didn’t think to get him clothes from anywhere else.
“When Zack was first born I was really young and I didn’t know any better so I just bought Zack stuff without really thinking about anything.
“I could easily spend up to a £1,000 a week at one point but I have probably calmed down a bit in recent years.
“Because he is so young I don’t think he even understands the fact that he has all this designer gear.”
Vicky said she earns her money from her job as a model and from Zack’s father.
She added: “I would buy him different sizes in the same shoe if I really liked it so that when he grew out of one pair he could just put on the newer one.
“If there was a t-shirt I wanted and I didn’t know what colour to get then I would just buy it in every colour.
“Sometimes I regret spending all that money because he was so young and obviously didn’t know what he was wearing.
“I could have put that money away for his future but I was given money from his father at the time and I just used to spend it week on week.
“I just thought it would always be like that and I didn’t think any different.
“Me and Zack’s father have split up now and I am more careful what I spend because it is my own money.
“I guess I haven’t really learned though because I still spend a lot on Zack.”
Vicky believes her extravagant shopping stems from almost losing Zack as a baby.
The youngster was born after just 27 weeks and spent two months in intensive care after he contracted bacterial meningitis.
He battled through but Vicky says she will always remember how she felt and has vowed to lavish her ‘miracle baby’ with whatever he wants.
She said: “As far as I’m concerned he is my wonder child and I don’t think its necessarily a bad thing to want to treat your son.
“He was born so premature and there were kids in his intensive care unit that were in a better situation than he was and didn’t make it.”
A survey by insurers LV in January showed the cost of clothing a child from birth to the age of 21 is just under £11,000.
