Right royal fashion for pets

1:29pm Monday 29th October 2007

What rabbit would refuse a pair of carrot curtains? What cat doesn't yearn for a mouse mat to sit on? How many tortoises can live without a knitted tent? And what dog wouldn't cut a dash in a cable-knit coat?

Local author Joanna Osborne has come up with knitting patterns for all these and more in her new book Pet Heaven: The Animal Accessory Bible. Ruth Addicott went to meet her - and Nell, the Kate Moss of the dog world

We are all noticing a slight nip in the air and it's sometimes easy to forget that our furry friends feel the seasons changing, too.

Fortunately, local author Joanna Osbourne has solved the problem with her new book Pet Heaven.

Co-written with Sally Muir, the book features a range of knitting patterns for dog coats as well as other fashion necessities such as an anti-firework balaclava which featured on the Jonathon Ross show last month.

The designs are meant to be practical as well as chic.

I have arranged to meet Joanna at her home in Brighton. Nell (her whippet lurcher) comes bounding up to meet me, latching on to my notebook as soon as I arrive. I give her a few friendly pats on the head, hoping she'll calm down but her excitement only increases to the point I'm hanging on to my notepad with all my might.

"She normally has a habit of welcoming visitors with anything she can find, including knickers," says Joanna, trying to pull her back.

Relieved not to go through the ordeal of having to hand back a pair of pants, I nod sympathetically and say, "It is probably all the excitement of being in the paper."

And with good reason, Nell might not be able to put paw to paper but she has played a key role in the book, trying on various coats for size and modelling them for the shoot.

"She is quite tolerant," observes Joanna. "Her tolerance was beginning to wane slightly after three months and she had a look of dismay every time I'd pull out a new piece of knitwear, but she was a star model. She is definitely the Kate Moss of the canine world."

Pet Heaven features an extensive range of outfits from a football strip ("to give your dog a sense of purpose") to the timelessly elegant Cable Coat.

Joanna describes it as one the most practical garments, with a rugged Sean Connery feel and contemporary edge.

Alternatively, there is the ravishing yet practical Floral Dog Coat for the dog "who wants to stand out from the crowd". And for the environmentally aware, there is the Eco dog coat, recycled out of a favourite old jumper.

It is about as far away from tacky tutus as you can get, even the cat cushions have an air of grandeur about them, baroque-inspired for a true aristocat.

While dog coats in general are nothing new, veering from Oasis-style parkas to designer denim jackets, Pet Heaven focuses on the more traditional look, with sensible coats and cable-knit jumpers. It is more Country Casuals than Diesel.

"We didn't just want to do a knitting book, we wanted to do something different," explains Joanna. "A lot of research shows knitting is very soothing for pain and stress and there has also been research to say it can be very therapeutic to own a pet.

So to combine the two seemed like a good idea."

There are practical ideas for a whole range of pets, including carrot curtains for a rabbit, a "mouse mat" for a cat and a knitted cage cover which gives the illusion of being in the sky for the discerning bird.

They even considered a handstitched hammock for a rodent but feared it wouldn't go down well with the American market, given their inherent fear of rats.

Having grown up in a house full of animals, Joanna is an expert when it comes to accessories.

"We had up to 50 or so animals at any one time," she says. "Ten sheep, several hens, two donkeys, two horses, a mynah bird - he actually spoke very little, three dogs - all poodles, pheasants and a goat called Nancy."

Spotting the potential to glam up the poodles, her penchant for knitting began when she was ten. "The first thing I knitted was a dog coat with a hideously saggy neck," she says.

"Then, still at the age of ten, I made a beautiful bridal felt rabbit set, which I sent to Blue Peter. It was tiny, absolutely minute, and they sent me a very sweet letter back saying, We'll put it on our shelf so all our viewers can see it'. You'd need a magnifying glass to see it but, anyway, I got a Blue Peter badge, which was very exciting."

After leaving school, Joanna worked for Granada Television where she found herself knitting again - this time to stay awake.

It was while she was in London she met her business partner, the co-author of Pet Heaven, Sally Muir.

They set up a knitting business and it has been going for 25 years. It was originally called Warm And Wonderful but wanting to be taken a bit more seriously, they changed the name to Muir And Osbourne. "We got fed up being asked Which one's warm and which one's wonderful?'," she adds.

Their quirky jumpers proved popular and in 1981 they gained huge fashion status when Princess Diana was spotted in their now iconic red and white sheep jumper.

"She was given it by the mother of one her pages," recalls Joanna. "We had no idea until we saw it on the front page of a newspaper. My father got terribly overexcited and immediately phoned the Palace to see if we could be by royal appointment. They said no, obviously. It was very embarrassing."

The jumper became hugely fashionable - Penelope Keith has one and even, it is rumoured, David Bowie.

An odd combination, grants Joanna but it was all the rage at the time.

"We all wore dungarees so it kind of fitted," she says. "I was even wearing it in my passport photo for ten years which was quite embarrassing."

The jumper hasn't been lost in the mists of time and today takes its place in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Their knitwear has also proved a success worldwide, including the UK, US, Japan and Europe, with celebrities such as Adam Ant, Jimmy Sommerville, Sadie Frost, Robert Plant and Ewan MacGregor among their clients.

To add to their acclaim, in 2002 they were presented with the UK Fashion Exports Small Business Award.

Having an eye for design, Joanna has now become something of an expert when it comes to pets and is more than willing to offer advice on how to make an entrance in the park.

"I like the contradiction of a football strip worn by a delicate refined little dog like a whippet," she says.

"Or putting a poodle in the Hells Angels collar. The obvious thing to do would be to put bulldogs in the football strip but it's rather nice to put them in a floral dog coat instead."

There are no fashion "faux paws"

according to Joanna. You can wear whatever you like.

What about colour co-ordination?

"I suppose you've got to think of the practical aspect," she adds. "Rustycoloured dogs with auburn hair look rather fetching in green or turquoise, while pale dogs look very nice in darker colours. Grey dogs can look nice in emerald greens or red, too."

Despite her part-time modelling profession, Nell doesn't have a dog coat of her own, preferring to go "au naturale". If she does get one for winter it's more likley to be a plain one than a cutting-edge parka, says Joanna.

"She ought to wear the Britartinspired Spot Dog Coat from the book as I've got one similar," she muses.

"Spots are never out of fashion and any dog wearing that is sure to feel equally as at home in Hyde Park as Hoxton Square. We could walk out as hers and hers', truly cutting a dash."

Joanna isn't in favour of novelty accessories and baulks at the idea of a pet umbrella or sunglasses (known as "doggles"). The pet world may be a multi-million pound business but the sight of a Phantom Of The Opera costume for a ferret or a dog perfume called K9 is a step too far. While US dogs go wild for pyjamas, bandanas and iPods with the latest woofing sounds, she keeps Nell on a firm lead.

"I think tutus are ridiculous," she says. "If you like that kind of thing and your dog tolerates it, it's OK. But I wouldn't do it. Nell is far too discerning for that."

Nell is more likely to be spotted strolling around Brighton in a handknitted collar than having her nails painted at a grooming parlour.

"I take her everywhere we're allowed to go," says Joanna. "Primark won't have her but Gap are more than happy.

Sussex Stationers won't have her, either. We're quite good at being thrown out of places."

Most of the other animals in the book were provided by the photographer Diana Miller. Dolly and Edith, the poodle cover stars are half-sisters (same mother, different father) and belong to a friend in Hackney, while Neville the tortoise was on loan from Preston Park.

Surprisingly, given the tendency animals have to misbehave or turn their backs the moment a camera lens is in place, the shoot went fairly smoothly. There were no small deposits and the only slight behavioural lapse came from the whippet Lilly, who stole the photographer's assistant's sandwich while filming over lunch.

As for Nell, she earned extra biscuits for good behaviour and judging by her tail, which hasn't stopped wagging, is looking forward to modelling next season's looks already.

• Pet Heaven: The Animal Accessory Bible, by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne, is published by Quadrille at £14.99.

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