New York Daily News – http://www.nydailynews.com
Canine couture
By TINA BARRY
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
Now that your dog has so many places to go, he or she will need the perfect outfit. Fortunately, there are a number of boutiques that cater to the city’s “fashionbeastas.” Much like human clothing, prices and designs run the gamut. But one thing is constant: Pets of the fashion-conscious dress as well as their owners.
“Dogs are like children for some of my clients,” says Karen Ngo, owner of Scout, a dog boutique in the East Village. “They care about every aspect of their lives, and dressing their pets for warmth and style is important.” Important enough for some to drop $200 for that doggie coat in the window.
Howie Binder’s celebrity clients wouldn’t even blink at $200. Binder owns Doggie-Do & Pussycats, Too, an upper East Side boutique that’s one part Ralph Lauren-esque plaids, one part Joan Collins glitter. With the likes of Bette Midler, Sharon Osbourne and P. Diddy combing his shelves for the hippest pup wear, he isn’t going to stock just any old schmattes.
Minnie, Osbourne’s Pomeranian, would look divine in an Austrian crystal tiara ($45) worn with Donald J. Pliner’s green leather coat, hand-embroidered with a dragon ($295-$495). A Burberry raincoat lined in the company’s signature plaid ($95-$125) needs the right boots to complete the ensemble. Binder, who writes the column “Queer Eye for the Scruffy Dog” for New York Dog magazine, also employs a team of in-house groomers to freshen your pooch’s appearance.
Another head-to-tail salon is Posh Pets Grooming & Board in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The boutique offers an elegant selection of goods at great prices. For $25.99, you can get the Ivana Trump of canine luxury – Doggiduds’ warm coat, which reverses from faux tiger fur to gold lamé. A high collar frames the dog’s face for warmth and drama. Shearling is the “It” coat for canines this season, and Fashion Pet’s tan suede with sheepskin lining is a bargain at $30. Hair styling to accentuate a pooch’s best features and comfortable accommodations for short- or long-term stays are also available.
There are no overnight stays for the East Village hounds that frequent Scout, Ngo’s charming shop, but its “shabby chien” décor invites lingering. Ngo, the top dog of this wainscoted boutique, heaps her tables with hand-knit wearables and lights the room with chandeliers.
For the neighborhood’s punk holdouts whose pit bulls need something stylish, Ngo stocks CBGB’s T-shirt with the club’s logo ($22.99). Uggs may be losing their appeal for dog lovers, but their pets find “Dugs” très chic. The boots, in pink, blue or black, are just over $17 a paw ($70).
You wouldn’t call Spoiled Brats, a West Side boutique, shabby chien, but what it lacks in ritzy setting, owners Sed and Eddie Rum make up for with garments that are totally Rex and the City. The Bead Shop’s rhinestone dog collars have real bling ($49-$119); ditto for Chrome Bones leather collars with a rhinestone-encrusted bone ($76). And for art browsing at the MoMA, there are Ella Dish’s collars and leashes in autumnal-toned woven squares ($32-$34).
April Walker, owner of Walker Pet Shop in Fort Greene, loves all dogs – but she admits, “males have the sweetest personalities.” Her bias shows. Though she stocks plenty of cute fashions for female customers, the boys’ selection is cutting edge. Bruiser can accompany his two-legged dad to a ball game in Just for Fashion’s Allstar Dogs collection of sports jerseys printed with Mets, Knicks or Yankees logos ($25). And if Bruiser needs a lift, men won’t flinch toting him in Celltei’s best-selling camouflage bag ($78-$128).
It isn’t cheap to dress pooches with panache, but for our best friends, isn’t it a small price to pay?
Where fashion goes to the dogs
DOGGIE-DO & PUSSYCATS, TOO
567 Third Ave., (between 37th and 38th Sts.)
POSH PETS GROOMING & BOARD
256A Flatbush Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn
SCOUT
627 E. Sixth St., (between Aves. B and C)
SPOILED BRATS
340 W. 49th St., (between Eighth and Ninth Aves.)
WALKER PET SHOP
759 Fulton St., Fort Greene, Brooklyn
