The rise of bespoke pet fashion: From T-shirts with logos to designer outfits
From bespoke ‘sherwanis’ to hand-embroidered leashes, pet fashion is nearly as indulgent as human fashion
August is rarely underdressed. Trends inform her outfit of the day but her mood dictates the final look. Whenever she goes to a café in Gurugram, meets a friend or attends an event, dressed in skirts, dresses and pantsuits, people do a double take. After all, this six-year-old ginger cat has over 200,000 Instagram followers.
For the past five years, August’s pet parent, Imlinenla Jamir, has been dressing her up in clothes ranging from cottagecore-inspired gingham PJs to Marilyn Monroe-style dresses and strings of pearls.
“August is a diva," laughs Gurugram-based Jamir, who works in the corporate sector. “Cats can be extremely moody; there are days you can’t even touch her. But then there are days when she loves being all dressed up and posing for the camera. My mom started making her clothes at home during the covid-19 lockdown, just for fun. Later, once we started posting her photos on social media, we got a great response. We still make her clothes at home, but now we also buy from outside. There’s been a big change."
The change Jamir is referring to is the evolution of the pet clothing and accessories landscape in the country. Gone are the days when the options were limited to a red or a blue T-shirt, or a green or a polka-dotted bow. Now you can buy a chikan kurta, a tailored tuxedo, a hand-embroidered lehnga, a cotton shirt with a logo of your choice, even throw in a bamboo fibre or denim leash hand-embellished with words, letters or numbers. Pet fashion is moving towards becoming as indulgent as human fashion, with customisation services being widely available.
The Indian pet market, in terms of pet products and services, has been rising for a while. It was $10.5 billion in FY24 and is estimated to reach $16.2 billion by FY32, according to the Markets and Data platform (there are no specific figures available for the pet clothing industry). The reasons for this are several, including the rise of nuclear families, increase in income and change in perception towards pets.
Much of this has to do with the “growing ‘humanisation’ of pets", says Akshay Gupta, the Delhi-based founder of Pet Fed, a festival that’s been bringing everything related to pets—brands in clothing and food, adoption drives, workshops, runway shows—under one roof since 2011.
“When I started, working in this (pet) industry was considered a taboo. Now, people are giving companionship with pets as much importance as companionship with, say, a human partner or a human kid, and that’s reflected in a way how they dress up their animals."
On an average, over 100 clothing stores participate in Pet Fed, which happens annually, starting from November, in four cities. These are Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, while the fourth city keeps changing—this year it is Pune. Five years ago, the number of stalls was half.
To indicate the growth of the pet fashion industry, Bengaluru-based Vineet Khanna, the co-founder of pet supply store Supertails, offers a company-specific example. “During Diwali, we sold a few thousand of sherwanis, close to 10 times what we sold last year. You are seeing more clothes because the customer wants to see and buy more clothes." Supertails is working on collections designed in collaboration with two of India’s leading fashion designers, whose names are currently under wraps.
The increase in creating pet fashion is not just restricted to big brands. When Kota’s Vandana Suman, who used to work in the admin department of a private school, started The Chow Meow during the pandemic as an online-only pet clothing and accessories brand, she used to get one or two clients a month. This Diwali, she sold over 30 outfits, including lehngas, kurtas and bows, all customised. Suman also creates outfits for pets based on what Bollywood actors are wearing and fashion week trends.
“The idea is to give them variety based on what’s ‘in’," says Suman, whose offerings are in the range of ₹2,000-4,000. Her 100-plus clients are spread across India, the US, Dubai and Europe. “People now don’t just want their pets to be dressed up on special occasions; they want them to wear something personalised everyday."
That idea of everyday fashion for pets was behind Kutta Couture, a range of accessories by Jaipur-based designer Ashna Vaswani, started in September. “Not every dog or cat enjoys wearing clothes daily. So, I thought why not play with accessories so the pet can look stylish and sassy all the time," says Vaswani. Her leashes, collars and harnesses, in the range of ₹7,000-18,000, can be hand-embroidered or hand-painted with a message the client wants. “Some have requested their pet’s birth dates; some, their names," says Vaswani, who received close to 30 orders just a week before Diwali.
Is this interest in clothes for pets driven by social media—dress your pet and post on Instagram?
“Social media has now become a reason for almost everything we do. But people won’t go through the trouble of choosing a fabric, a specific colour, the embroidery and spend over ₹20,000 on just one outfit for their pet, right?" replies Rhea Goyal, the Delhi-based founder of Furrvanity that makes customised pet clothes and accessories. She gives the example of one of her recent creations for a Shih Tzu, who was a ring bearer at a wedding, to reiterate her point. “The groom was wearing a Manish Malhotra sherwani and he wanted the same outfit for his dog, so we discussed everything with them—from the fabric to the colour, buttons and hand embroidery.
Jamir agrees social media is driving people’s interest. “It’s like how we see what others are wearing abroad and want similar styles for ourselves here. The same is true when it comes to pets. But the difference is, you can’t force them to wear anything. If August wants to sit naked the whole day, she will do that. If she wants to be (Audrey) Hepburn, she will happily wear the black dress and the pearl necklace and pose."
What’s the next big trend in pet fashion? The same thing that’s next in human fashion: eco-friendly fabrics.
“Like natural stuff that’s weather-friendly, fur-friendly... types of cottons, jute," says Gupta. “Whether it’s trendy or sustainable clothes, people want the best for themselves and for their four-legged kids. And why not? They are family after all."
topics
