Pet Fashion Weak?

Oh PFW what went wrong? Pet Fashion Week NY was created to provide a gallery setting for the refined pet lifestyle professional to both purchase and distribute the very best products in the industry. Over the past three years Pet Fashion Week NY – which started out as THE go to event for pet lifestyle buyers has turned into a pageant of celebri-dog self promotion.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to see all of our friends so helplessly devoted to their pet’s fashion and wonderful for the media to take part but this should not overshadow the real reason for staging Pet Fashion Week. Pet Fashion Week NY should represent the very pinnacle of what the pet lifestyle industry has to offer. Yet somehow this year felt just – meh.

In 2009 over 75 product lines were represented at Pet Fashion Week NY and the event was visited by over 1200 attendees. This year there were maybe half the number of exhibitors and attendance had to be in the mid to low hundreds. PFW buyers are identified as the most sophisticated in the industry but at this year’s show the number of buyers in attendance was so scarce that it left some of the exhibitors wondering to whom they were exhibiting. The buzz and excitement generated by the first PFW seems to have gone.

Where was the fabulous runway fashion show that set the tone and kicked off the fabulousness of the event?
What happened to the showcase for grooming that featured groomers doing over the top makeovers?
FIT Student work is still a welcome focus of the show, but what about giving out awards to the students by category resulting in a “best in show ” honor followed by a reception?

That being said there were standout exhibitors at this years show.
Here are the PupStylish Picks of Pet Fashion Week New York 2010

From the Brazilian gallery of vendors (thanks in part to Pet Fashion Week Sao Paulo):
Crystal Dog
Pippidolly’s
I.N.E.S.

The Italians were well represented with:
DogVIPStar
The USA had some stand outs as well:
we loved the beautifully crafted leather backpack by
Te-leash-a.
The eco-friendly line of recycled vintage tee’s by
Black Baron Kingdom

Sustainable luxury wooden dog beds by
Truly Deevine
and some sweet wonderfully crafted pieces of apparel at amazingly affordable prices that any Pupstyler would love from the likes of:
Sam and Tasha
Mochi and Jolie