FLORENCE, Italy — Little-known fact: Dogs are
clotheshorses.
In a thriving marketplace for pet apparel that was valued at
$5.7 billion in 2021, dog owners account for a majority of sales. Common sense
suggests that the bulk of that expenditure goes to leashes, harnesses, and
collars. Yet as it turns out, T-shirts and sweaters are a startlingly robust
canine growth sector. And let us not forget about coats.
اضافة اعلان
These were some takeaways from Day 1 at Pitti Uomo, the menswear
trade fair held in Florence every January and June. And what, one may ask, does
Rover’s turtleneck have to do with an event best known for attracting flocks of
vain male humans disporting themselves in wackadoodle plumage?
It is that, for the first time, Pitti Uomo devoted a pavilion
inside the 16th-century Fortezza da Basso to showcasing animal apparel, and why
not? Cats and dogs make up the greater percentage of the hundreds of millions
of pets on the planet. And it is largely feline and canine markets that are
driving a boom in pet apparel (guppies, parakeets and guinea pigs tending to
look better naked).
Leashes, collars, dog
totes, and poop-bag dispensers designed by Emma Firenze in Florence, Italy, on
January 10, 2023.
Among the factors credited with driving market growth are
increased urbanization, an overall uptick in disposable income and societal
shifts that give pets parity with — and, often enough, priority over — family
members. Thus we now see a proliferation of pet-centric brands like Moshiqa,
which has been spotted on Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs, as well as Max Bone,
PetHaus, Wagwear, Muttropolis, Vanderpump Pets, and a raft of other pricey
canine offerings from luxury goods houses like Barbour, Ralph Lauren, and
Gucci.
Surprisingly, it was not the marquee high-end labels — with
their $655 logo harnesses (Moncler) or $300 four-legged, fleece-collared
blanket-plaid coats (Dsquared2) or $540 patterned woolen hippie ponchos
(Alanui), all made in collaboration with Poldo Dog Couture — that brought their
wares to Florence.
Instead, for this modest debut, the Pitti pet pavilion was given
over to 15 stands in a pavilion designed by architect Ilaria Marelli and
featuring mostly plucky indies like the Painter’s Wife from Spain or mid-size
brands like Lollipet and DuePuntoOtto (with a line of dot-patterned dog coats
and beds designed by Italian architect and design deity Paola Navone), each
clamoring to claim a share of what remains a nascent sector.
Was there silliness? Since we are talking about creatures
perfectly clad as nature made them, there was. Was considerate design required
of garments essentially comprising a top seam, a belt, and apertures for head
and tail? Oddly, the answer was yes. While one display featured crinolines that
would test the dignity of any canine, purebred or mutt, another offered a
back-belted doggy car coat inspired by one Hubert de Givenchy created for
Audrey Hepburn to wear in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” As did Holly Golightly’s,
this one had bracelet-length sleeves.
The designer Sonia
Staccioli in the Lollipet booth, with a doggie version of Holly Golightly’s
orange Givenchy coat in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” on the left, in Florence,
Italy, on January 10, 2023.
“It’s huge and it’s growing,” Lollipet designer Sonia Staccioli
said of the market for outerwear like the pieces she had brought along, jackets
and coats made from metallic fake leatherette, faux fur, and a nubby Casentino
wool produced for centuries at several small and now imperiled Tuscan mills.
When a reporter inquired of Staccioli, whose Bracco Italiano
hunting dog, Ugo, strained at his leash, how making clothes for customers with
four legs and little say in their choice of apparel differed from designing for
notoriously picky humans, she shrugged.
DuePuntoOtto collars on a rack in Florence,
Italy, January 10, 2023.
“It’s basically the same,” she said, “except with dogs you don’t
have to listen to their opinion.”
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