Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 30, 2009
Local woman’s Classy Doggy Designs hit national fashion scene
Samara Litvack
A couple years ago, interior designer Linda Higgins took her brand new Chihuahua, Lucy, to a client’s house. It was a cold November day and the tiny pup weighed less than half a pound, so before leaving the house, she transformed a sock into an outfit by cutting out holes for her head and legs.
When she got there, her client fawned over Lucy but was a little less excited about her outfit. Higgins was an interior designer, after all, surely she was capable of putting something a little more fashionable together.
“During the holidays, you don’t do much in interior design,” says Higgins. “I had lots of time to come play around with it, so I did.”
Higgins made Lucy a dress out of fine fabric she had lying around the house. Dressed in her mother’s creations, Lucy started turning heads all over town. Before long, Higgins was finding inspiration everywhere she turned.
“My dresses all speak from the fabrics,” she says. “I don’t try to take a fabric and make it into something that it’s not. The fabric on these dresses just tell the story.”
On one trip to an Atlanta evening gown shop, Higgins says a boutique owner took one look at Lucy’s dress and “went bananas.” It was then that her personal venture became a professional one.
She made her first-ever sale to that Atlanta store owner and soon after, her life became one big whirlwind of creativity. In March 2008, she traveled to Los Angeles and participated in the Luxury Pet Pavilion Show, which she says is the best thing she ever could have done. She sold nearly every dress she brought to the event and made contacts that have catapulted her less-than-a-year-old business, seemingly overnight.
After placing her line at the Posh Puppy Boutique in Los Angeles, a Disney executive inquired about using them in an upcoming children’s flick. The media conglomerate is using
some of her designs in its current filming of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2” and when the DVD hits shelves, Higgins is confident some of her dresses will make the cut.
Her creations are also a hot ticket in New York City. This year, she’s designed several dresses for doggy-friendly galas, open to women and their canine friends, all wearing evening gowns. She has even designed doggy outfits for Halloween and Christmas.
“Once I sell a dress to someone, they’re hooked,” she says. “You can see how well it’s made. It’s all hand done.”
And while Higgins had to miss Pet Fashion Week in New York City this year, the pooches of people she’s met online donned her doggy dresses to different events held throughout the week. And, as expected, they gained her much attention.
Locally, Higgins’ high end designs can be found at Bon Appetit on the North Shore, and she has hopes of organizing doggy-friendly galas of her own in the future to raise money for the local Humane Educational Society. And while the pooches in her home are all tiny – ranging from a pound and a half to a few pounds, tops – her dresses are made for a variety of sizes (ranging from petite to “for larger women,” which fits 20-pound pups).
To check out Classy Doggy Designs, visit www.dogdressesbylindahiggins.com. To inquire about special orders,
contact Higgins at llhid@earthlink.net.
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