Stuart Walford knows first-hand that different pets can have very different personalities.
“I have two poodles, Susan and Peter,” says the Melbourne-based stylist and creative consultant. “Susan is very affectionate and needy. She was the first one that I had so she rules the house. Her younger brother is quite delicate, very soft and shy. He’s a jet-black poodle and Sue’s a champagne, cream colour.”
As a freelance stylist, Walford’s sartorial skills aren’t limited to the runway or photo shoots. He’s curated exhibitions for the National Trust of Victoria, worked on magazines and with a host of clients in New York, Tokyo, Paris and more. But closer to home, it’s Susan and Peter first in line for the star treatment – the poodles often sport matching accessories to Walford.
“I use lots of bandanas and scarves,” he says. “I wear silk scarves and neckties myself, so we often share. And over the years we’ve got a collection of dog collars with different colours, different crystals, so we express ourselves that way. Sue also likes to have her nails painted. We normally go pink – very cliché.”
Starting out with accessories
When it comes to mixing and matching with your pet, Walford recommends starting small.
“Dip your toe into the water with a collar and a lead first,” he says. “Try and look for something that’ll match the personality of your pooch. They’re the ones wearing it after all. Then I would branch out into bandanas, and then into full apparel.”
A simple starting point is getting creative with your pet’s lead and collar. Even humble accessories like treat holders and poo bag holders from the likes of Frank Green can offers pops of colour with your mix and match options.
Walford says when you’re deciding how to approach personalising your pet, make sure to work with them. “Everything’s about having fun and what makes us feel good,” says Walford. “If the dogs aren’t vibing wearing a scarf one day, then they don’t wear it.”
Matching colours to your pet
Our four-legged pals come in a beautiful spectrum of coat colours and markings, so Walford recommends playing off their unique traits when accessorising. If you’re not sure where to start, Walford has a tip.
“A great rule of thumb for colour is to look at the colour wheel and colours that sit opposite each other are ones that complement,” he says. “My boy is jet black, so neon orange would be a really beautiful colour against a black base. If I was to put a more masculine colour [against that] like khaki or black, it would blend into the fur.”
If you’re up for it, picking colours closer to each other can have a great effect, too. “For Susan, I really liked mint gelato or lilac haze. Because she’s got this cream undertone in her coat, those pastel colours would [be lost against] her hair.”
Perfect pairings
The ultimate act of the proud pet parent is to go one step further and dress to match, so you can always choose your dog’s style to be in line with your own.
“[My style] can be quite chaotic, very vibrant,” says Walford. “I dress for my energy and how I feel each day, so sometimes that might be clashing colours and prints together in a really aggressively fun way, but it could also be monochromatic and simple.”
So whether it’s humble everyday accessories, bold fashion statements worthy of mixing and matching, or modern products like a silicone pet bowl or pet safety light introducing new utilities, Walford says there’s a couple of ways to go.
“I’d take two approaches,” he says. “I would either keep my outfit and the dog accessories in a tonal outfit – so I’d go for an all-pink colour blocked moment, like neon pink with a cool pink suit. Or I would go for a colour clash, which would be fun. Like picking orange in the dog lead and collar and myself wearing a pink outfit so that the tones bounce off each other.”
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Frank Green and its first collection for pets.
