FROM pink dresses to superhero costumes, these owners like to dress up their pets in the latest fashions – just don’t the say the word ‘catwalk’
Owner Chloe Swift with her well-dressed Chihuahua, Bentley, in a Superman costume [SWNS ]On a weekend break in new York a decade ago, my husband and I got the giggles as we watched a Great dane wearing a thick woolly jumper walk with his owner through Times Square. Granted, it was minus 9C and snowing but we still dismissed the pooch’s pullover as something that could only happen in America.
How wrong we were. Pet clothing is now massive business here in the Uk too. according to a 2013 Mintel report the pet retail market as a whole in the UK is worth £589million and analysts MTW Research says that clothing and accessories alone will top £35million by next year.Small wonder when owners like Chloe Swift spend as much time buying clothes for their animals as they do for themselves.
Chloe Swift's Bentley models his pricey rain mac [SWNS] His favourite outfit is his tuxedo. It’s the next best thing to having a baby to dress
Chloe Swift
Chloe’s two-year-old Chihuahua, Bentley, rarely leaves their wiltshire home without wearing his best bib and tucker. In fact Mintel found that seven per cent of owners now dress up their furry friends.“His favourite outfit is his tuxedo,” says Chloe, 33, who lives in devizes and works in event management for a national children’s charity. She is child-free and recently separated from her boyfriend. “It’s the next best thing to having a baby to dress.”Chloe’s obsession began out of necessity when Bentley was a puppy and she was under vet’s orders to keep him warm. “Lots of the smaller breeds feel the cold because their natural coats are so thin,” she explains. “I brought Bentley home in december 2011 when he was six weeks old. It was freezing and he was too tiny for clothes, so I made jumpers for him from my thick horse-riding socks, cutting holes in them to fit.”She adds: “He got so used to wearing clothes and getting attention as a result when we were out, that every time I take him for a walk now he waits to be dressed, lifting his paws up to put them through the arm holes of his T-shirts and jackets.”Bentley has an outfit for every occasion and season, ranging from polo shirts, hoodies, rain macs, wellies, bath robes and swimwear to fancy dress costumes such as Superman, a policeman’s uniform, ET and Santa.A quick Google search for UK pet clothes retailers brings up websites for endless shops and online stores.Sarah Smart launched www.weepet.co.uk in 2009 after she and her husband were unable to find anywhere to buy clothes for their Chihuahua and Miniature Pinscher.“we realised that there must be lots of other pet owners in the same position so started sourcing products we liked and wanted our pups to wear, such as small sized hoodies, coats and harnesses,” says Sarah, whose day job is in media buying.“I was sceptical about how well our fledgling business would do but five years on we take as many as 70 orders a day during busy times.”It’s not just petite pooches with a penchant for clothes either. Sarah was soon deluged with enquiries about clothing for larger animals. “We now have a range of items from sizes XXS to XXXL and our biggest coat was bought for a Shetland pony,” she says. “Our best-selling size is medium, which is perfect for a spaniel or Jack Russell. We sell everything from raincoats in winter, to life jackets, bow ties and tuxedos for the summer wedding season.”
Dalila Salgueiro and her pampered Yorkshire terrier Chloe model matching jackets [DANIEL LYNCH ]Chloe snaps up clothes for Bentley at online stores such as littledogshop.co.uk plus some of the many stores now mushrooming in towns and cities. Pettecoats, Urban Pup and Pet London are her favourites.“Most weeks I buy Bentley something new to wear but I try not to spend more than £40 on each outfit,” reveals Chloe, who even changed jobs so she could work from home and be with Bentley full time.“He’s got an entire chest of drawers full of clothes and I always ensure that our outfits are colour co-ordinated. He sleeps in vest T-shirts in summer, pyjamas in winter and dons a bathrobe when he’s chilling out before bed.“He likes to wear his dressing up clothes for parties. Last week we went to a friend’s birthday dinner so he wore his tuxedo and when he came with me to a work event recently he sported his Superman costume.”Pet accessories such as extravagant diamante collars and decorative leads are also big business, as Nicola Sacher will attest. She is the founder of luxury cat and dog outfitters Mungo & Maud, a business that she created at the kitchen table with her husband in 2005. At the time only traditional pet stores selling such essentials as food, bedding and toys existed.“Demand for luxurious pet clothing and accessories has soared and we’ve evolved from having one small shop to three London stores and a website which attracts customers from around the world,” says Nicola, whose product range includes cashmere and Merino wool knitwear costing up to £140 a pop.“Increasingly, people take their pets on holiday, to lunch with friends and even to work, so demand for pet clothing and accessories such as a beautiful lead to complement an outfit continues to grow. From Chihuahuas to Great Danes, city dogs to country dogs, we have pets of all shapes and sizes through our doors.”Dalila Salgueiro is a PR in the beauty industry and is potty about buying clothes for her pooch Chloe, an 18-month-old Yorkshire terrier.“I normally dress her with hand- made, tailored clothes that I get from a Spanish designer brand called Maximiliano de York or from Purplebone in Chelsea,” says Dalila, 27, who lives in Battersea, South London.“I got Chloe in January 2013 when she was two months old. It was freezing cold so I bought her a little pink coat with a hood and sheepskin lining to keep her warm. I don’t have kids yet so she’s like my baby.“Now she has almost as many clothes as me. I like to put her in cute little dresses and she never eaves the house without a bow in her hair or a lead or harness to match her clothes.“She has a pink Hello Kitty coat that she wears when we go to the park, and a red mac and boots when it’s raining. On warmer days she wears her favourite pink lacy knickers. My favourite of all her outfits is a pink Chanel-style dress that I paid £200 to have made especially for her by Maximiliano de York to match my own original Chanel dress. It even has little pearls around the neck, which I bought on a trip to Venezuela. We wore our matching dresses to a New Year’s Eve dinner party last December.”Dalila says her boyfriend Jacob was reluctant the first time she asked him to take Chloe out for a walk because she was wearing a pink dress.“He soon got over his embarrassment when he realised how much attention Chloe gets,” she says. “He came home and said he’d never had so many girls say hi to him. Now his single friends love to join him if he’s walking Chloe or taking her out and about while I’m away because they know they’ll get lots of attention.“Top of my current shopping list for Chloe is a gorgeous bathrobe for her to wear next time I take her to the dedicated pet spa she loves at the Armathwaite Hall Hotel in the Lake District.”Meanwhile, if there’s a heatwave down in Wiltshire this summer, fellow four-legged fashion model Bentley might have to ditch his clothes and go out wearing nothing more than his birthday suit.“As much as he loves his clothes and I love dressing him up, there are times during hot weather when I do let him leave the house totally starkers,” says Chloe Swift.
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