To wed in style, get your dog a matching dress for the walk down the aisle

Custom-made bridal dresses for pets are big business for one couple, who also make dog costumes for festivals such as Christmas and gear including hoodies and tuxedos for male dogs. They’ve even dressed cats and miniature pigs

Reading Time:3 minutes

Trixie, a 15-week-old Yorkshire terrier, is fitted with a grey party dress made by her owner, Suzanne Crosier, who, along with her husband, Dean Crosier, runs a business to create clothes and accessories for dogs. Photo: Tribune News Service

Published: 3:17pm, 17 Nov 2015Updated: 3:17pm, 17 Nov 2015

When a bride walks down the aisle in her carefully chosen wedding gown, these days she may be accompanied by the family dog wearing matching attire.

“In the summer, I sell at least one wedding dress each week,” said Suzanne Crosier, who makes pet clothes in the games room of her home under the business name Chic Doggie Boutique and whose customers come from many parts of the world, including China.

The dog bridal dresses can be custom-made to mimic the style of the actual bride’s gown. Pricier ones often have pearls and other embellishments hand sewn into the design. They sell for US$25 to US$60 and usually take one to three hours to make.

Dean Crosier with Tootsie, who sports a white wedding dress made by his wife, Susanne, and two of the family’s other dogs. Photo: TNS

Crosier and her husband, Dean, have sold more that 800 dog outfits since they started in July 2012. Business continues to pick up for them and for other pet clothing companies as more and more dog owners – and to a lesser degree owners of cats and even miniature pigs – dress their pets in increasingly elaborate clothes and costumes.

Do a Google search for “clothes for dogs” and you’ll get about 66 million results. Do a search for “handmade clothes for dogs”, and results total 1.15 million, including the Crosiers’ boutique and Etsy, a popular website where the Crosiers also sell their wares.

The American Pet Products Association in Greenwich, Connecticut, estimates that more than US$60 billion will be spent by Americans on their pets this year. While there is no separate category for pet clothing, some US$5.2 billion of that total is for services, such as grooming and boarding.