A luxury dog is not a more expensive dog. It is a dog whose wardrobe has been thought through with the same standard we apply to our own: a material whose nature you know, a cut that follows the body, a piece made to last, hands you can name.
This article follows that sentence in order: the fibre, the cut, the lifespan, the hands. We begin with the material, because everything else depends on it.
A note before we begin
Most dogs do not need clothes. Small dogs and short-coated dogs feel the cold sooner, and they have a real reason to wear something. The same goes for rain, for strong air conditioning, or for a day that counts. Outside those cases, buy nothing.
That is also a definition of luxury. Luxury answers a real need with the best possible answer, and then it stops. Everything that follows starts from that restraint.
The material first
A perfect cut in a poor fibre is still a poor piece. The fibre decides what the dog feels against its skin, how the piece falls, and what condition it is in five years from now. The first question to ask of any dog garment is simple: what is it made of, exactly?
Most dog sweaters are made of acrylic, which is a plastic. It barely breathes, it pills quickly, and it never improves. Sheep's wool is a better fibre, but it contains lanolin, which is behind much of the itch people associate with wool. We chose baby alpaca.
What baby alpaca is, and what it is not
Baby alpaca does not come from baby animals. The name describes the fineness of the fibre: the softest grade of the fleece, between 20 and 22.5 microns. The finer the fibre, the softer it feels and the less it prickles. Ours comes from Peru, from alpacas raised in the Andes.
The fibre is hollow at its core. That structure holds warm air, so the piece warms without weighing. A heavy sweater hampers a dog. A light one lets it move. Alpaca also contains very little lanolin, and its fibres are smoother than wool's. Against the belly and the chest, where the coat is thinnest and the skin most delicate, the difference is felt.
It is also worth saying what the word does not cover. Not all of our knits are pure baby alpaca. Some are an alpaca blend, and they are named as such. Pure baby alpaca is reserved for the pieces that carry its name, such as the Baby Alpaca Polo Sweater or the Honeycomb Degradé in baby alpaca. A material has value only when it is described exactly.
Colour is part of the material. On our Winter Set, sand is the natural colour of the fibre, undyed. There is nothing to add to what the animal produced.
For warm days, the material changes. The Muslin, our summer shirt, is GOTS certified. It is the only one of our pieces that is, and we claim it for that piece alone.
Read the label. An honest composition fits on one line. When it takes three lines and an adjective, be wary of the adjective.
The cut
A luxury dog garment is cut the way one cuts for a man: close at the shoulder, clean at the collar, structured without stiffness. The difference is that a dog's body is not a standard shape.
The shoulder is the first place it shows. On a dog it moves through a wide arc with every step. A piece too narrow there pulls across the chest at every stride. Well cut, it follows the shoulder and settles.
The chest, the back and the neck do not grow together. Neck circumference, for example, does not follow chest circumference from one size to the next. A cocker, a poodle and a dachshund do not share a silhouette, and a single pattern, scaled up or down, always ends up pulling somewhere.
The dachshund taught us this. Its back is long, its chest narrow, and standard sizes do not fit it. Our dachshund pieces are therefore offered in five sizes, named for back length: 30, 35, 38, 42 and 45 centimetres. Size 35 was validated on a real dachshund, Azur. A cut is checked on a body, not on a drawing.
Our fabric pieces are cut and sewn in our Paris atelier. On our shirts the cuffs are finished by hand and the closure is concealed, so the line is never broken. These are details that barely show in a photograph. They show when the dog moves.
Lifespan
Luxury is measured over time. A piece that looks new for a month and then sags is not a luxury piece, whatever its price.
A well-made baby alpaca knit pills little and softens with washing, provided it is treated properly: washed by hand, cold, dried flat, stored folded rather than hung. The instructions are short, and they are enough.
Our runs are short. We prefer a few pieces, well made, to many pieces made quickly. A piece from the house is not a seasonal purchase. It is a garment you keep, and can pass on to another dog.
That lifespan also changes the arithmetic of price. A sweater you keep for several winters costs less per year than one you replace every winter. The price of a luxury piece is judged over its life, not on the first-day tag.
The hands
Behind every knit there is a person. Our knits are made by hand on manual flat looms by artisans on our team in Huancayo, in the central highlands of Peru. The machine is manual: a hand slides the carriage across the needle bed, row after row. Nothing in it is automatic. A single piece takes several days of work.
These artisans have known this fibre far longer than the house has existed. The tension of a hand-made stitch varies from one row to the next. That is what gives it its density and its drape, and it is what a production line does not reproduce.
In Paris, other hands, those of our atelier, cut and sew the cotton. Naming these hands is not a sales argument. It is a way of saying that the value of a piece is not in the label.
What luxury is not
Luxury is not a price. A high price proves nothing. Nor is it a logo, a material nobody dares to name, or something new every month.
Permanent novelty is the enemy of durability. A house that renews everything every month cannot make pieces to last, because it has the time neither to design them, nor to check them, nor to wear them. We prefer to arrive late and arrive right.
Three questions are enough to judge a piece. Is the material declared precisely? Is the origin named? Is the piece made to last? If one answer is missing, the price does not replace it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a luxury dog garment?
A garment whose material is declared precisely, whose cut follows the dog's body, which is made to last, and whose maker can be named. Price is not part of the definition.
How do I care for a baby alpaca sweater?
Wash it by hand in cold water, dry it flat and store it folded rather than hung. It will keep its shape and soften over time.
How do I choose the size?
Measure your dog's back, from the base of the neck to the base of the tail, then check our size guide. For a dachshund, use the dachshund size guide. For advice, write to us on WhatsApp.
Where to begin
For knitwear, our sweaters and alpaca pieces are gathered in the knitwear collection. For the days that count, you will find our luxury dog shirts. For the house and its principles as a whole, read our luxury dog clothing page.
A luxury dog starts with the material. The rest follows.