"I'm amazed at how many kids don't realize how they're being exploited by t-shirts that snag, wraparound patchwork dresses made of "old" material that fall apart, and especially jewelry where the elastic stretches out in no time at all," exclaimed Michael Sklar, the man behind "Childstar," a jewelry business that is justifiably thriving. To walk into his busy Hell's Kitchen workship (he's moving soon to more spacious digs) is to walk into a veritable Baskin-Robbins, or an old fashioned penny candy store. Huge hot pink orchid plastic earrings with matching pins, giant tortoise shell disc earrings, half dollar size clear lucite earrings embedded with little gold stars, outrageously colored button necklaces and bracelets and much more line the walls and fill the cartons piled high on the floor. I went completely bananas when confronted with all of this gorgeous stuff.

About a year and a half ago, I wandered into the fancy Henri Bendel's in New York thinking that if anyone would be selling earrings, they would in that store. At that time I just had this feeling about earrings, it seemed that they were ripe for a revival with the inevitable short hair styles that were to come. Bendel's had little silver pierced numbers, and gold hoops, but nothing big and tacky — which was what I wanted, naturally. I found myself scouring the local Puerto Rican stores and all the available Woolworth's to find really flashy, cheap stuff. Nothing. As a last resort, I bought art deco buckles — you know the kind, those beauties from the forties that come in matched sets. You really can't do anything with them other than sew. or clip them onto something. I clipped them onto my ears. A big mistake, as I quickly discovered when my ears began to bleed. I tried bending and twisting the little pointed clasps that hold the buckles onto whatever material you choose. Earlobes were obviously not the material originally intended.