GOOP should perhaps be re-named OOF given the amount of times Gwyneth puts her foot in it. Fresh from the scandal whereby critics found that to follow her family meal recommendations would cost circa £200 a day, poor G has now been accused of sexualising four-year-olds.

GOOP and Melissa Odabash have collaborated on some ‘super cute’ beachwear for girls. Most critics are shaking their fists about the idea of little girls in bikinis. Huh? Girls have been wearing bikinis dotted with strawberries or edged with frills, forever.

What is deeply unfortunate, however, is the imagery. See GOOP’s home page.

A pre-schooler, about four, is unsmilingly modelling what looks like a sexy adult bikini that has shrunk in the wash. Once you click on the £30 bikini itself, you are confronted with the same toddler in poses that would be more fitting on Miranda Kerr. 

Popping a hip, gazing out to sea, or quietly relaxing on a deck, y’know, as four-year-olds do. 

‘Now your daughter can have a Melissa Odabash bikini too,’ trills the description. ‘Hers is navy with ruffles on the top and bottom, and ties on the back and sides.’ Show us a 5 year-old who knows what a Melissa Odabash bikini is and we’ll show you a five-year-old who should definitely be spending more time talking to fairies at the bottom of the garden or cutting her Barbie’s head off.

If these bikinis didn’t have suggestive ties and were dotted with daisies, it would be less sinister. Do kids really want plain, navy beachwear? If she was burying her brother, giggling, rather than languidly reading a (grown-up’s) coffee table book, it might feel less weird.