Bejewelled collars and monogrammed bowls: Why dogs are living a luxe life | Canada Voices

Amidst a bustling New York Fashion Week this past September, editors and influencers piled into a Brooklyn warehouse for a fashion show transformed into a dog pageant co-presented by jewellery and accessories line Susan Alexandra and fashion designer Rachel Antonoff, featuring a cast of adoptable rescue dogs.

Their show, which featured the rescue dogs alongside an eclectic cast of personalities including comedian Sandra Bernhard and actor Tavi Gevinson as dog walkers, highlighted Susan Alexandra’s top-selling category of bejewelled dog collars and leashes alongside new fashion and accessories from both designers. “It was really from the heart and about pure unadulterated joy,” says Susan Alexandra’s founder and designer Susan Korn.

Joy is one way to describe fashion’s newfound obsession with dogs – of late, the industry has been swept up in a trend toward dog-centric advertising, with furry friends infiltrating the high-end worlds of Chanel, Gucci and Jacquemus, to name a few.

Luxury fashion sales have slowed in the past year, with price increases, shifting values and financial uncertainty contributing to shoppers being much less inclined to spend on high-end fashion and accessories (according to a report by Bain & Company, the luxury goods market fell by 2 per cent in 2024). Dog accessories offer a lower-priced alternative for consumers to still enjoy a piece of that world in a fun and frivolous way, and fashion houses are hoping the pet clothing and accessories market, which is expected to be worth US$7-billion by 2032, will boost their sales.

Dog-focused clothing and lifestyle collections have sprung up from a multitude of brands including Aritzia, Skims, J.Crew and Louis Vuitton, which offers dog collars that are comparable in price to its card holders, offering a new revenue opportunity for the brand.

Louis Vuitton’s pet collection might be the most over-the-top, with monogram leather dog bowls, a $40,000 crate complete with leather trim and gold-toned hardware and a companion men’s-wear collection designed by award-winning musician and artist Pharrell Williams, who is also the fashion house’s men’s creative director. There are even dachshund-shaped handbags (for humans) from Thom Browne and Alaïa. And Marc Jacobs has been holding pop-ups since last winter, where pet owners can have their dogs immortalized through adorable portraits painted on the brand’s popular totes and bags.

Opportunity has been calling since the days of the COVID-19 pandemic when dogs became welcome antidotes to our mandated lack of social and physical contact. According to a 2023 survey by the American Pet Products Association, 58 million U.S. households now include a dog, up 20 per cent from 2019. Canada is also seeing an upward trend, albeit a smaller one, with dog ownership up 3 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2019, according to data from the Canadian Animal Health Institute.

“If you look at it through the lens of COVID, you see that as the sort of cliche that pets have replaced kids in many households, so it makes economic sense for brands to lean into that,” says James Denman, an executive branding consultant in New York who has worked with Gap, Tom Ford and Mulberry.

According to Denman, luxury brands dabbling in pet accessories is also indicative of a shift toward creating a “total brand world” of products that extend beyond the traditional categories of fashion and accessories and into other areas of consumers’ lives. “If you think of Vuitton or Gucci as effectively a brand world, it makes sense for the luxury purchasers to not just be buying for themselves but equally branding themselves or putting themselves and their wider group and family and pets in that world,” he says.

Specific dog breeds can even help differentiate and reinforce brand identities. For instance, Burberry wrapped Scottish terriers in its iconic check scarves for a recent holiday campaign, evoking a sense of the brand’s British heritage. Another British heritage brand, John Lobb, commissioned artist Alison Friend to paint pictures of beagles and Jack Russell terriers gifting and receiving its footwear in her whimsical take on classic British portraiture.

This lifestyle integration is on full display at Toronto’s newly opened Hound House, a private members dog club that boasts a sleek café, dog spa, co-working space, day care and accessories shop. Informally branded as a “Soho House for dogs,” the indoor space is co-owned by Lauren Guizzetti, a former assistant to Kim Kardashian who recognized the opportunity with the rise in remote work and dog ownership during the pandemic.

The first of its kind in Canada, the club melds luxury aesthetics with the practicalities of dog ownership. “We wanted it to be a cool place to take photos and for it to be a badge of honour that you’re a member,” says Guizzetti. With memberships starting at $170 a month (day passes are also available), she echoes that there is a “dog as kids” sentiment amongst Hound House’s Millennial and Gen Z members.

Dogs are at once fashion’s oldest and newest obsessions. Marie Antoinette famously adored her small lapdogs, with her pug Mops often appearing alongside her in portraits, showcasing her wealth and status. Dog costumes appeared around the same time, with aristocrats dressing theirs in embroidered coats, silk jackets and tea jackets. It’s a simple formula that only seems to be expanding.

And in an era of endless scrolling, Korn sees dogs as a warm and fuzzy way to cut through the noise. “Dogs make our synapses fire on all levels. When we see them, our maternal instincts are triggered, or our memories are triggered – it’s really effective because they move people on so many levels,” she says, herself a rescue dog owner. “It’s hard to get fatigued by cuteness.”