Alonso Mateo has been labeled a fashion star and a style icon , but despite his incredible following on social media, the 5-year-old does have his fair share of critics.
Let’s start from the top : Mateo dresses in tailored clothing from all the big names and has a walk-in closet for his clothing collection. He has 14,000 followers on Instagram and almost 13,000 on his Facebook fan page.
Despite his age, he has already learned many tricks of the social media trade, including strategic selfies, filters, and a flirty, devil-may-care persona. Did we forget to mention that he’s only five?
Anyway, Mateo was branded a “style icon” in The Cut by stylist Ugo Mozie, and he did it all without having Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for parents or being featured in a single fashion magazine photoshoot.
However, Mateo also has a fair share of critics. More specifically, his Laguna Beach, California parents do.
“He looks absurd,” one observer wrote. “It’s not cute, sweet or delightful. It’s dumb.”
Some seem to think that Mateo is being raised to be shallow and materialistic. “Poor child, the ego of Instagram, Twitter, etc. got to his head at that tender age,” another wrote.
Mateo’s mother, Luisa Fernanda Espinosa, told TODAY that his Instagram photos are just for fun .
“It was never to try to make money out of it or to make him a child celebrity, even less ‘exploiting’ him or endangering him in any kind of way. We are very dedicated parents and incredibly fortunate to have the means to enjoy many nice things, including clothes. We never intended to portray him or our family as shallow or materialistic, but we feel it has only spiraled down that way.”
She also says that there are many pictures of Mateo doing regular 5-year-old things, but those “are part of our own personal albums.”
You can check out a few photos of Alonso Mateo, the 5-year-old fashion star, below. Let us know what you think: Is this harmless fun, or do you agree with the critics? Sound off!
[Images via: Facebook , Instagram]
