The mittens are off in a proxy battle between Children’s Place and activist shareholders, who claim the stores are cluttered with expensive merchandise that’s not selling until it’s heavily discounted.

Macellum Advisors and Barington Capital, which hold a 2 percent stake in the retailer, are agitating for two new directors at the Secaucus, N.J.-based company.

“The emphasis on higher-priced items at the stores has not been well received by customers,” the companies said in a 62-page report released this week.

Children’s Place holds its annual meeting on May 22.

The activist shareholders are also targeting Chief Executive Jane Elfers, whom they describe as overpaid, receiving a total of $42.6 million from 2011 to 2014.

Elfers joined the company five years ago after previously heading up Lord & Taylor.

During her tenure, Children’s Place’s stock price, which fell 1.5 percent Wednesday, to $60.90, significantly underperformed its peers and the market as a whole, according to the activists’ report.

“We see no reason why Ms. Elfers should be so richly rewarded while [Children’s] performed significantly worse than [archrival] Carter’s,” the report said.

Michael Casey, Carter’s chairman and chief executive, was paid $30 million from 2011 to 2014.

Management, though, said the stock hit an eight-year closing high, at $64.19 on March 31, in a vigorous defense of the company and Elfers’ performance.

The report is “replete with factual inaccuracies and ill-informed conclusions,” said a spokesman for the company.

The company sent shareholders proxy cards nominating its three directors.

Macellum and Barington are pitching Robert Mettler, a retail veteran, and Seth Johnson, who sits on numerous boards.

Children’s Place’s board rejected the nominees without meeting them, the activists said.