Dogs on Film

Auckland-born photographer Paul Nathan’s new coffee table book, Couture Dogs captures bedazzled chihuahuas and Yorkshire terriers – the fashion plates of a special breed of dog owners who don’t mind spending a small fortune on a four-pawed wardrobe. “They are eccentric and colourful and into fashion,” said Nathan, a New Zealander who lives in Williamsburg, New York. Nathan, whose previous book, Generation Ink, about Brooklyn hipsters and their tattoos, started off the project by shooting owners who look like their dogs on the street. That eventually led to meeting people in the dog-couture culture, people who find it not unusual to splurge $US1000 to $US2000 a year on their one-of-a-kind couture costumes.