Style goes walkies ft. Zak, the canine Gok

I was reminded the other day that I promised, in my first post, to create looks to make everyone look fabulous, even when dog walking. Now I realise that my most recent styles haven’t quite been poop-scoop-appropriate (unless you have a tiny well-behaved chihuahua and enough celebrity status to get away with putting it in your handbag) so welcome to my dedicated dog post!

This is what got me standing outside trying to coerce two badly-behaved, excitable schnauzers in front of my camera. Unsurprisingly they kept running away to investigate more exciting things like wild animal poo, which resulted in me trying to get them back in the shot before the shutter went. As you can see, this did not work.

Now, you may ask if there’s really a need to create outfits for walking dogs in. Nobody sees you anyway, right? But really, I’ve never met a person who feels actively great in purely practical clothes. Some level of aesthetic appeal never goes unwanted. Plus, you feel good in a well-coordinated outfit whether anyone sees it or not. Secondly, it’s convenient- you don’t have to change in an out of your dog-walking gear.

I have two criteria for clothes suitable to walk the dog in: poo bag pockets, and wipe-clean shoes (I can’t believe how much of this post has been about poo). Wellies are really my only option shoe-wise- I acknowledge that jellies are also wipe-clean but just imagine the squelching feeling when something soft and unwanted filters through the gaps in them….

My first look uses patterned leggings (Topshop). These are great because they filter nicely into wellies without crumpling, and the pattern adds a bit of interest. A knitted jumper (The Ragged Priest) gives warmth but is still smarter than a hoodie. I love the zips on this jumper, it makes it quite different. Wearing a shirt under it then unzipping the zips gives a pretty cool effect. A quick change from wellies to brogues (New Look) takes it from picking up the brown to hitting the town.

Snazzy leggings are one thing, but often rain-proof gear doesn’t go amiss. I am always tempted to shrug into my ski jacket, but actually festival season means bright but fashion-conscious waterproofs are everywhere.

I paired skinnies with a bright yellow doily-patterned mac (Topshop) to ward off rain. Tried to get Zak to wear a matching one but he wasn’t keen. The patterns again smarten up the look enough for wearing out and about in the city. I added pastel blue pumps (also Topshop) for a summery vibe. The jumper underneath (New Look) is a different shade of yellow because I have to wear as much yellow as I can in the summer to last me through the yellowless winter.

There we have it! A balance between sweatpants and midi skirts. I think it’s important to have multi-purpose outfits, because otherwise you end up only wearing your out-of-the-house clothes on special occasions, when you could wear them all the time. There are very few times where style is inappropriate, and dog walking is not one of them.

Come back in a couple of days to see how my family styles me!