Chihuahua Fashion Moment: Authentic Burberry Dog Collar

This collar is another thrift store find. It is labeled "Burberry London" on the inside, and each stud says "Burberry" along with the buckle. This is a leather collar with an overlay in the iconic Burberry House Check pattern. This is a very wide collar for a small dog, it fits necks 8-11" around and is a full inch wide.

Photo by Erin Koski

I believe this collar was available in 2005, Burberry does not currently offer any dog collars or accessories as part of their 2014 line. There are knockoff collars with Burberry check patterns, but unlike Coach I don't believe Burberry routinely produces dog collars. This one seems to be a very high-end reminder of the dog boutique fad of a decade ago. Remember when tiny dogs as fashion accessories were suddenly popularized by celebrities, and everyone had to have a pursedog? Remember when everyone from Target to Toys'R'Us to Victoria's Secret had to have a dog boutique full of adorable collars and sweaters and bowls and beds? All sized for dogs well under 30 pounds? I still have two sets of Old Navy rain booties that date from 2001. I'm actually rather disappointed that the fad ended around 2006, well before I got a pursedog of my own.

Ru's Burberry collar is a thrift store find from a year or two ago, I paid around $2 for it. Normally the thrift stores in town overcharge for everything and frequently price worn items well above retail, but I am fortunate that they don't seem to know pet stuff very well. This collar was greasy, stinky, and very dirty when I bought it. For reasons that escape me, some people will apparently put a $200 collar on a dog that goes years between baths. At any rate, it cleaned up nicely with a little saddle soap, with just a small crack in the overlay along the most used hole. Perhaps I should rethink my stance on stinky thrift store Coach collars...