'Little Miss Sunshine' star seeks jeans company's duds.

Hollywood's kudos season creates a feeding frenzy in the fashion industry every year.

Celebrity fashion designers often create special dresses worth tens of thousands of dollars and send them to actresses for free in hope the celebrities pick them to wear at the Academy Awards or one of the related galas. Alas, few such dresses ever see the light of a flash bulb.

But Los Angeles-based Lucky Brand Jeans got lucky this year. The 11-year-old Abigail Breslin, up for supporting actress honors for her work in "Little Miss Sunshine," actually asked the company, which is mostly owned by Liz Claiborne Inc., to outfit her.

"I wish I could say there was some grand scheme behind it," said Jezzica Lindkrantz, Lucky public relations manager, whose company rolled out a kids' division last fall. "Her family wears a lot of Lucky Brand and she was super-pleased when we started making a kids collection."

The closely held private denim company sent Breslin some clothes, which she wore on an "Oprah Winfrey Show" appearance. Lucky then designed a dress for Breslin to wear at the Oscar nominees' luncheon. The young actress picked out fabric for the dress and Lucky chose a daisy-patterned sweater.

What's more, Lucky is making a vintage-inspired dress for Breslin to consider for Oscar night. Often, actresses accept a variety of dresses from several designers, only to make the choice at the last minute.

Regardless of whether Breslin chooses Lucky's dress for Oscar night, the company's already received a publicity boost.

The dress the young actress wore at the luncheon was photographed and viewed by millions of celebrity magazine readers and the outfit even earned a special notice on People Magazine's Web site.

Hollywood commercial stylist Katie Meehan said Oscar fashion relationships fall into two categories: those that are part of a paid, contractual agreement, and those that are the result of a designer sending an actress an outfit in hopes the actress will choose it for the big night.

"The designers make things specifically for them that cost $10,000, $20,000, $30,000," Meehan said. "They'll do anything for that exposure. So they take a risk."

The exposure came for Lucky at a good time, since it is in the midst of an expansion binge. The company, which has about 300 employees in the corporate office, has 140 stores around the country, 35 of which opened last year. It will open 35 Lucky Brand stores and five Lucky Kid stores this year. Lucky Kid is made for children 6 months to 10 years and it plans to expand that target market to 12-year-olds this fall.