How Prestige Pets Became the New Status Handbags
Whether in Greenwich Village or the Hamptons, Isaac Mizrahi, who used to love going out for breakfast, tends to cook at home these days. But he still takes his two dogs out for walks.
“If you have any kind of good-looking dog,” says the designer, who met his husband while walking his late mixed-breed “couture dog” Harry several years ago, “you can’t help but use the dog as a form of display.”
Especially right now, when one-percenters are out and about using them as something between status handbags and social lubricants. “Even if you can’t touch other people, you can touch other people’s dogs, and that’s a comfort,” says animal activist Georgina Bloomberg.
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show used to be a February focal point in Manhattan, but it hardly matters that it's been postponed until June. With owners obsessed with exercise and desperate to get out, the dog show is on as never before—pet adoptions skyrocketed by 200 percent in New York and Los Angeles in 2020.
“It’s a canine traffic jam in L.A.” adds Suzanne Donaldson, whose blog Mrs Sizzle documents high-end hound life. “I’m seeing more dogs on the streets right now than actors.” (Indeed, some people have even resorted to desperate measures to get their hands on a rock star pup: Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot this week in Hollywood, and her two French bulldogs abducted by the gunman; she is now offering $500,000 for their safe return, "no questions asked.")
With social obligations on hold, and owners adhering to strictly casual work-from-home wardrobes, pets became their proxies, little furballs of self-care that they get could dress up even if they themselves couldn't, and maybe, too, a way to connect while social distancing.
“We’ve all gone from social to shut-in, and our dogs give us an excuse to show off,” says philanthropist Emma Snowdon-Jones, whose little Belgian schipperke turns heads on the Upper East Side, even among dogs in Burberry coats and jeweled collars. “People aren’t dressing up, but they still keep up appearances by dressing their dogs.”
Indeed, the uptick in upscale fashion for the canine elite has been notable, according to WWD, with luxury brands such as Moncler, Marine Serre, and Versace selling briskly (Donatella’s Jack Russell terrier Audrey appeared in a prefall ad; she boasts 29,500 Instagram followers).
“I’m amazed at the effort people are putting into dressing their dogs,” says Thom Browne, whose wirehaired dachshund Hector is a recurring muse for the designer. Hector himself likes his gray sweater with Browne’s signature four-bar stripes. “Cashmere is all he wears,” Browne says.
Competitive primping has also accelerated, coaxed along by the new HBO Max show Haute Dog. Trends among owners hungry to separate from the pack include bright blue fauxhawks, Japanese teddy bear cuts, and an excess of henna.
“When dogs get older, they tend to get overlooked on the street,” says Jorge Bendersky, who is a judge on the upcoming ABC dog grooming show Pooch Perfect, hosted by Rebel Wilson. “If you give them some color, it brings them more attention, and in New York that’s what we’re here for.”
Clients who have moved out of their city homes, and who have stopped going to their hairstylists, still come in to see him for weekly or monthly appointments.
Equally ridiculous-sounding are such designer dog breeds as Schnoodles and Newfypoos, which can’t be bred fast enough to satisfy lockdown demand. “Owning the latest mix is a big point of pride these days,” says Andrea Arden, a trainer and expert who appears on the Today show and Animal Planet. “People tell you theirs is special because it’s an F1 or F2, which has to do with breed crossing, but all these mixes look like the same cute, fluffy dog that needs lots of grooming.”
Rescue prestige is growing too among the high-minded elite, especially now that Major, one of the Bidens’ two German shepherds, will join them at the White House.
Bloomberg, whose organization Animal Aid USA saves dogs (sometimes using her father Michael’s jet), has five rescue pets, including one that is 16 years old and blind and weighs only two pounds. “I tell my seven-year-old son that having rescue dogs is the only thing he’s allowed to brag about,” she says.
Mizrahi, meanwhile, recently adopted a stray he named Kitty from Puerto Rico, which has replaced New Orleans as the status rescue spot. Daryl Roth, the Broadway producer, rescued Addie, a poodle-bichon mix, and Vanessa Getty, the San Francisco philanthropist, owns a Great Pyrenees mix named Polly.
“Eighty-five pounds of low-key love,” Getty says.
Chelsea Fairless, the co-creator of the popular Instagram account @everyoutfitonsatc, knows she should have adopted, but she purchased a purebred bulldog last fall. Her wife Tatiana Waterford pushed for it. Two weeks after they got the dog, Waterford went back to styling Katy Perry, leaving Fairless to do the parenting. She’s not allowed to walk the puppy, Francisquito, until he has all his shots.
“But I like to show him off, so I carry him when I go out for coffee,” says Fairless, who lives in West Hollywood. “I mean, it’s such a dark time, and people just seem so happy to see a puppy that I don’t mind that he’s 18 pounds and getting heavier every day, because I need the exercise.”
Call it puppy Pilates.
This story appears in the March 2021 issue of Town & Country.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You Might Also Like
