LaPlace fashion designer's creations for dogs and cats are growing ...

A LaPlace fashion designer's creations for dogs and cats are growing in popularity. Severine Vicknair?s Pink Punk Puppy Designs business is taking off as her fashion creations for dogs and cats draw attention nationwide.

Though her miniature wedding gowns and costumes cover the backs of four-footed clients, Vicknair?s concepts are as detailed as Vera Wang, and are up to date with the human fashion scene, Vicknair said. She recently competed with other pet couture designers at the Pet Fashion Week competition and the New York City Doggies and Tiaras pageant. One of her models, Gia Marie, was named Miss Doggies and Tiaras 2013 and a customer wearing a Vicknair ensemble walked away with an honorable mention.

Vicknair said that the New York Pet Fashion show is the biggest fashion show for dogs and is held before the human New York Fashion Week and the Westminster Kennel Club dog Show. Proceeds benefit an animal rescue organization. She did not win the coveted title of Pet Fashion Designer of the Year, but, she said the competition drew attention to her designs and helps with name recognition in the industry.

A few years ago Vicknair would not have dreamed she?d be sewing fashions for dogs and cats, but then, Breezy, a shelter dog her family rescued, chilled easily and Vicknair began to sew fashionable, glitzy clothes for the pooch. She found she enjoyed the creative outlet.

Using her imagination while sewing canine couture was different than the needlework she was taught by her mother and grandmother while growing up in Switzerland. Very different, too, from the school sewing class where she showed little enthusiasm for the craft. ?If my teachers knew what I?m doing now, I think they would have a heart attack!? she said.

Vicknair made simple outfits for her other dogs, and when the family adopted Peanut, another shelter animal who needed the warmth of clothing, she created more fashionable pieces. It wasn?t until last year that she began to look seriously at dog clothing as a business.

She had been the executive assistant to the CAO of Al Copeland Investments, but was laid off and searched for work for two years. In March 2012 her mother died in Switzerland and when Vicknair returned from attending the funeral she brought home some of her mother?s fabric. She created an extravagant black gown with the cloth, and using her dog Peanut for a model, posted photos of it online for her friends to see. People began asking for the outfit and wanting to know what other fashions were available. ?I began to think it was a good time to stay home and try it as a business,? she said.

Today Vicknair specializes in custom clothes for ?furry princesses.? She meets customers online and gets to know them over phone conversations where she learns their likes and their pet?s personality. Most of her customers are in California, Florida and New York and one owns 15 of Vicknair?s creations. One of her clients, Mocha, is a top canine model in Texas. Clients often send Vicknair photo?s of their dogs wearing her handiwork and she displays them on the walls of her sewing room.

With her couture business growing, she is now searching for a seamstress to sew clothing for a line of less expensive dog-wear. She will create prototypes and provide patterns, fabric and notions.

As well as things are going now, her business suffered a setback when Hurricane Isaac flooded her home last August. She moved important papers, fabric and works-in-progress to the attic and her family, husband Roy, son Fabien and daughter Natascha, left home as water reached the house. She has spent the past months putting her home back together while preparing for the New York competition and trying to fill orders placed before the storm. ?I couldn?t have done it without my family. My husband is a deputy with St. John Parish Sheriff?s Office and worked extra duty so I could go to New York,? she said. ?And my customers are my friends, I have people waiting for things from before the hurricane. They don?t want their money back, they want my creations, and that means a lot to me.?

For information contact Vicknair at severine@pinkpunkpuppy.com or visit

www.pinkpunkpuppy.com.

Source: http://blog.nola.com/river/2013/04/dog_couture.html

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