Designer Lilly Shahravesh & Rabbit, The Studio Muse

Love My Dog was established in 2003 for people who want to give their dogs the very best and is now the world’s leading designer dogwear, sold in high-end stores in London, Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Sydney and Europe.

Everything from the dog coats and dog sweaters to the dog beds and toys is an original design, created from fabulous quality fabric. Each one is hand-cut and pinned, then individually stitched and hand-finished, and the sweaters are hand-knitted from pure new wool.

Celebrity pooches including Professor Snowball owned by Jonathan Ross have been snapped wearing Love My Dog originals. Customers of Harrods, Heals, Selfridges, The Conran Shop, and The National Gallery have also been able to buy Love My Dog clothing and accessories.

Love My Dog has been featured in fashion shows alongside designers like Vivienne Westwood and Ben de Lisi and is often seen in glossy magazines adorning beautiful dogs, large and small. Lilly and her designs have also been featured on TV including ITV’s This Morning.

How it all began
For many years, Lilly was a successful designer of knitwear and textiles for fashion houses. In the late ninetie’s Lilly’s sister became the proud owner of a dog called Missy, a gorgeous half Chihuahua-half miniature pincher. As a doting auntie, Lilly wanted to lavish gifts on Missy, but couldn’t find good quality dog clothing that would fit her tiny frame. In desperation, Lilly started making her own clothes for Missy, using fabric from her own collection.

Lilly’s first gift was a crocheted sweater, and this was followed with a blanket with Missy’s name on it, and a fleece-lined coat. People started asking where Missy got such a gorgeous outfit. Lilly realised there was a gap in the market for well-made, couture clothing for dogs, so in 1997 she embarked on a career change, and Love My Dog was born.

The Love My Dog Style
As befits a contemporary London fashion house, you can expect traditional British classics with an urban twist. Whatever the fabric you can be sure it is the very finest. The hand-knitted dog sweaters are made from finest virgin wool that really keeps out the cold. One of Love My Dog’s best-selling dog coats is cut from Melton wool, traditionally used for the uniforms of the soldiers who guard Buckingham Palace.

Lilly’s inspiration
Lilly gets her best ideas when she is out and about in London with Rabbit. She cycles around with Rabbit in the basket of her bike, soaking up inspiration from sources as diverse as the texture of a paving stone or the colour of paint marks on the street. The pair particularly love going to areas that are going through change, like Canary Wharf where empty factory buildings sit crumbling by the river yet only yards aware are smartly decorated, newly gentrified houses.

Lilly gains equal inspiration from seventeenth century botanical drawings or the very latest catwalk show of a New York Couture House. However, her biggest influence is fabrics; she owns a vast collection and spends hours rummaging in vintage clothes shops for fabrics and trimmings, and finds Paris especially fruitful.

Unique fabrics
In 2010 Lilly travelled to the Outer Hebrides to create a new tartan Harris Tweed. Known as ‘Hoxton Tartan’. This unique fabric is protected by an Act of Parliament, and is still woven by hand on the island. It is created from hardy breeds of Scottish sheep, which makes the cloth extremely soft, hardwearing and very warm.

About Lilly and Rabbit
Founder and Creative Director, Lilly is also the author of the best-selling coffee table book ‘Canine Couture’. Rabbit, who is half Norfolk Terrier and half Jack Russell, joined the studio in 2007, and is the first to try on any of the new designs. Like any dog, he is really a human in disguise and has special ways to tell Lilly what he likes (or doesn’t!) about any new creation.

Where to find Love My Dog
Love My Dog is based in London’s fashionable Hoxton, an area renowened as a hotbed of creative ideas and cutting-edge style. The airy, award-winning studio and showroom is built under the railway arches which gives the building an unusual curved ceiling and walls. You and your dog are welcome to visit by appointment for a fitting for a bespoke outfit or to purchase ready-to-wear. Just email studio@lovemydog.co.uk or phone +44 (0)207 739 4237.