One day in 2050: London Fashion Week’s first furry Models

Brands are including clothing for pets ranging from hamsters to horses in their fashion week line up

"Dog wearing Cloth Sitting on Road 20131227" by 玄史生 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

A short written piece I did as part of my writing practice during university, where I had to imagine a hypothetical fashion feature I would be writing in 2050 if the climate crisis isn’t resolved.

The runway has just ushered in a new category of clothing – for pets. It is half way through Fashion Week and London has just seen the likes of Burberry, Richard Quinn and Alexander McQueen have furry friends replace the traditional supermodels in closing the anticipated shows. Each label debuted a collection of “friends and pets” which included garments for animals that match the ones of their owners.

Globally, fashion has steadily begun to include domestic mammals in their collections as a result of the devastating effects of global warming which has caused long haired pets to lose fur and therefore suffer during the harshness of our extreme winters. Many pet owners have resorted to keeping their whiskered best friends indoors in order to keep them warm, however, with the increase of options available for animal clothing, owners now have a more stylish way to protect pets.

Initially, high street stores were the go-to for animal clothing, however after Richard Quinn’s campaign consisted uniquely of models with wagging tails, shiny hoofs and whiskers – other luxury fashion brands followed suit. This campaign was in collaboration with leading animal charity WWF who aimed to “raise awareness of the pressing crisis of climate change and its effects on our defenceless pets”.

London Fashion Week was however the first season to bring these furry creatures to stage; most notably with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Corgis who closed the Burberry show wearing an adaptation of a red trench coat alongside Princess Charlotte of Wales in a Red trench dress.

Other labels have been more open to their choice of models on their shows such as Alexander McQueen’s SS51 runway, being around the Royal Ascott fields, having the likes of Kaia Gerber riding a fully suited horse in a matching ensemble.

The rise in animal clothing is parallel to the increase of animal influencers who have become, arguably, more stylish than their owners.