Baby, It's You

fanfair

At the beginning of the summer, she was twentyeight and a half inches tall, with a bustline of eighteen inches. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and excellent skin. A spokesman at Ford models, where she recently interviewed, describes her as "absolutely, absolutely precious." Mackenzi (spelled in perfect modelese, without the final e) Reef Solomon made her fashion debut last winter in magazine ads photographed when she was two months old. The lace-and-satin hats she wore were designed (for adults) by Donna Karan, who is married to Mackenzi's grandfather, and who hopes to feature the child in her future print campaigns for furs, accessories, and a new, less expensive line, DKNY, to be launched next month.

Mackenzi's advent coincides with a swelling use of infants in ads pitched at baby-spawning baby-boomers. (Both the Ford and Wilhelmina model agencies recently added pre-toddler divisions.) Karan, the designer who put curves into power dressing, feels the trend actually complements her woman-executive image. "I think of myself more as a mother than as a designer," she says. Although Karan, who has a teenage daughter, would like another child, her husband told her "it was either DKNY or a baby." She admits he has a point. "Starting a new business is almost like labor. You'll say you'll never do it again. And then all of a sudden you forget what it was like."

BEN BRANTLEY