As models hit the catwalk for Fashion Week in New York, Anthony Rubio, pet couturier and womenswear designer, has some couture designs for your dog's next walk. Rubio also discussed how he became a dog fashion designer and where he gets his inspiration.

<div class="block">As models hit the catwalk for Fashion Week in New York, Anthony Rubio, pet courtier and womenswear designer, has some couture designs for your dog&#39;s next walk. Rubio also discussed how he became a dog fashion designer and where he gets his inspiration.</div>

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Cheddar Paws: Design Expert Anthony Rubio on Fashion for Dogs

York fashion week kicks off today and as models hit the catwalk. Our next guest is designing Couture for your next dog walk, internationally acclaimed pet and fashion designer and author of the upcoming book Canine Couture, Anthony Rubio. So Anthony, I'm so excited to have you here. You brought three of your models here today. Tell me a little bit more about them and who they are. Thank you for having me. Um Th this is Kim, but he's my, one of my boys. Ok, this is little gray shoes and that's his sister, Little Daffodil. So tell me about what they're wearing. They're such amazing outfits. And how did you get them to be so calm in them? Well, I, I am very blessed to have some of the best dogs in my show. A lot of them come pretrained already, but um they're very friendly. They all know each other and I decided to bring a little bit of glitter and glam to this um interview. And um these are from the last show because I don't want to give away anything from my show that's coming on tomorrow. So you were trained in classical women's wear how did you switch over to, uh, designing for dogs? Well, that was, that was an endeavor in itself. Um, I rescued a dog. He was always nervous and shaking and I decided that maybe I could put a jacket on him, it might calm him down and it took, and then everywhere we went, people kept stopping me and asking me where I got the jacket. Where did I, um, do this? And if I could, they could hire me and the rest is history. So you've done shows at New York and L A fashion weeks for years. What's your process of creating each of these outfits? And as I understand it, they're all handmade. Yes. Everything is made by myself, including the people clothing, uh the women's wear and sometimes some men's wear. Um I get inspired by, from everything from movies to the trends. I have my finger on the pulse of fashion all the time. I travel to Europe and I do get a lot of the inspiration from some of the top designers. Um I've been um I'm a member of the C FDA, the federation of, of American fashion designers. Uh They celebrated my work and they have me on there all the time and I enjoy so much the work that it's art for me. So I sit there, I conjure up these designs and then I sit there and sew away. So I know you said these are trained models and you yourself own a rescue dog? Is there a difference between a rescue dog and a, I guess a classically trained model? Can any dog be aspire to be a runway star? Oh, absolutely. It's just that um I have, I the fashion industry as a platform for me to speak and advocate for the plight of animals that are not wanted are discarded. And I like to put them into a rags to riches story which brings everybody, um, a lot of joy. Um, in fact, in this show, I have a special guest coming in. It's a tripod, a three legged dog and she'll, she's flown in from Ohio, so she'll be in the show tomorrow. So there's some fashion trends that you wanna bring into dog co tour. I bring everything from top hats. My boys, I have, I have him and his twin brother. I only brought him along with me today. They were on the show last time. Um, they wear sunglasses, some of the dogs wear boots. You name it, the, the, the dogs love it and you wanna know something, fashion week, all the hectic, all the stuff you see on screen of the models running around going crazy. You wanna know the best models, the dogs, they're on time, they don't complain. They put everything on and they love it. How do you get them to wear the boots? That's the hardest part. Well, that they have to be trained early on because if not like my boys won't wear them. Alright. And may you actually adapted some celebrity looks for pets into the gala? So how do you pull this off in just a few days? Well, that's the thing, you know, I, I was um challenged uh with uh the idea of putting together clothing from the med gala and I only have 3 to 4 days to do it and one day is already spent on shopping and getting the materials because I don't have it readily available. I don't know what the designers are putting out there. Uh We were contacted by Salma Hayek who loved the one that the dog was wearing. So she put it on her Instagram and um we um created a lot of pieces and I've been doing this for about 10 years. It started off as a little game and that to see if I can meet the challenge for myself. And now it's become a big deal and I'm using it to raise uh money and charity for or um animal rescue. So we were contacted by the um a KC Dog Museum and that's what we're gonna be doing the event. You know, what are some other ways besides the pet gala that you can support animals? And I know you've mentioned a little bit of even adopting yourself. Yes, I say that the first thing to do is when you're considering getting a dog, take a walk over to the shelters. You'd be surprised at what you have there. And the dogs from the shelters are, they appreciate the fact that they're being, um, adopted. They love you more. I've had better experiences with the adopted dogs than dogs that you buy, you know, in stores. And we're trying to, uh, veer away from shopping for dogs instead. So, something to say he wants to talk. And, um, uh, one of the charities that's close to my heart is the Guide Dog Foundation. So I also help to um raise funds because they breed the um dogs that they use and train there. It's a fascinating story. It's out in Long Island and um we've raised within um the last year uh with the charity run about $4 million so far and real quick before we go, tell me a little bit more about what we can expect from canine your book. Uh I have my book coming out in November and it's been uh five years in the making. It's very highly anticipated five photographers all over the country. I sent my designs out. I was in a lot of the sets and they did a lot of the um photography and um we had fun with it. And again, it's to tell stories about the dogs. You know, it's um immortalizing the dogs because some of them have passed away already. But you know what, you have that book and you can always open up the page and you can see them and, and they're such fun pictures because each artist has his own look. So there's pop art there. You name it. Well, thanks so much for joining us today. That's Anthony Rubio and his models, Kimba Gracie and Adil. They've all joined us and they're all really good boys and girls.