Island retailer Randi Evans noticed that customers at her Royal Poinciana Way gift shop, Rapunzel’s of Palm Beach, were always asking for and purchasing the limited array of baby clothes and children’s toys and books she stocked there.

Evans also noted that 8- to 14-year-olds — “tweens” in market-research jargon — were coming to her Rapunzel’s Closet shop a few doors down and then going to the denim-heavy branch of the boutique on South County Road.

Rapunzel’s Closet carries adult sizes, which teens generally can wear, but younger girls require sizes geared to their age group.

With a clear demand for children’s and tween merchandise, Evans recently decided to get out of the gift business altogether and convert Rapunzel’s of Palm Beach into Lil Rapunzel’s, a boutique devoted to attiring the infant to young adolescent set from head to toe.

Her move reflects the gung-ho attitude surrounding the tween market among all industry segments, but especially in the apparel business, which noticed this niche category in the mid-1990s, after the baby boom of the late ’80s. The current tween population in the United States is estimated at about 3 million, and, because of the ongoing American baby boom, is expected to remain consistent for at least another decade.

“It has been very exciting and rewarding to see this new category take off and become a major force in the market today,” said Ilene Oren, a New York City children’s wear representative whose focus has been on the tween market since 1990.

“Tweens are the real fashion trend setters of the youth market right now,” said Caroline Lettieri, a trend forecaster and director of Calabasas, Calif.-based TLC (Teen Liftestyle & Culture), a report published quarterly in ApparelNews.net.

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