The Luxury Dog Accessories Market Just Crowned A New Queen
There’s a new kid on the block in the luxury dog accessories market. Launched in late 2020, American petwear brand Pagerie is the world’s first-ever ultra-luxury fashion house exclusively for pets. Founded by lawyer-turned-beauty influencer Mandy Madden Kelley to serve a market that demands the best of the best for their pets.
“We design innovative accessories that will stand the test of time. Imbued with artful craftsmanship, exquisite attention to detail, and conscious functionality.”
Dogs are the subject of their debut four-piece luxury dog accessories collection, fittingly named Sahara. A minimalist, sand inspired (read neutral toned) palette of accessories comprised of a leash, collar and two harnesses. The leather comes from the same tannery responsible for Hermes’ iconic Birkin handbags. The metal is made from marine-grade stainless steel normally reserved for making yachts.
The provenance and quality of the materials is only the beginning of a brand that is every inch a luxury dog accessories fashion house. From the sophisticated designs to the branding, and of course the price.
The pieces themselves are designed to be durable and fit a variety of dog shapes – to showcase the natural form, build and graceful movement of the wearer. Exactly the way a piece of haute couture should. To achieve that goal, the designs leverage specialized artisans who use old-world methods for crafting leather and integrating them with hardware - buckles, loops and such - passed down from generation to generation.
When it comes to branding, one look at the Pagerie website and you instantly know you’re looking at something at the (very) high end of town. Effortlessly exhibiting the cool and subdued, but undeniably determined and purposeful, tone that can only come from confidence in one’s station.
So, we hear you ask, what will luxury dog accessories such as these set me back? Well, the Babbi and Colombo Harnesses retail for US$720 and US$$680. The Tascher Leash and the Doro Collar are priced at US$520 and US$380.
Pagerie Founder Mandy Madden Kelley shared in an interview with Forbes “Whenever I’d go to a fashion event or a nice restaurant and saw stylish people walking with their dogs, I was shocked to see that they had a leash and collar that did not represent their fashion sense or their love for their pets.”
As Forbes commented “This revealed for her a void in the market for high quality and stylish accessories that even the pets themselves would love to wear.”
Although the Pooch & Poodle range of apparel clearly does not directly take inspiration from the luxury dog accessories world of haute couture – especially when it comes to our everday wear human apparel - we noticed a similar gap in the market to Pagerie’s Madden Kelley. As one of our team is fond of saying when we first seriously looked at the dog lovers’ apparel market:
“It was overrun with endless variations of the same ‘tacky’ t-shirts, hoodies and caps. It was as if someone had decided that dog lovers were a group of unsophisticated ‘stay-at-homers’ who liked to lounge around in ‘take-away’ t-shirts.”
And although that shared view of the ‘gap’ in the market is largely where the comparison ends, we also share a similar minimalist restraint in our designs, as well as a belief in quality.
“Our intent has always been to create durable, everyday apparel for dog lovers using low-key, minimalist designs for those - like us - who want to be able to express their love of dogs in any setting … and do so in style.”
This same aesthetic extends to the carefully sourced and curated range of dog accessories and essentials that Pooch & Poodle offers. Again, although our products aren’t crafted in the same factory as the luxe houses, our choice of products have most definitely been informed by the same observation that inspired Pagerie’s Madden Kelley. In an interview with Dezeen she commented:
"I just always found it odd when I'd see people dressed immaculately but then their dog is sporting a bright red plastic leash from a chain pet store … Our pets are a reflection and extension of ourselves and I realised there was such a gap in the market for products that live up to that connection."
To find out more about the Pooch & Poodle range of products visit our homepage at www.poochandpoodle.com.