Shiba Inu Bodhi, a dog, has no time for silly pastimes like chasing squirrels or playing fetch. Far from it, he’s quite serious about his high flying career as a top New York menswear model.
The four-year-old dog is well known in fashion circles as he has landed paid modeling contracts with top brands such as Coach, Todd Snyder and Salvatore Ferragamo. He is also a social media sensation with over 140,000 followers on Instagram.
Bodhi’s owners, Yena Kim, 27, and Dave Fung, 29 came up with the idea as a joke. They dressed up their adorable dog in a few fancy suits and hats. When they posted photographs on their Facebook page, the response they received was overwhelmingly positive.
So they started their own Tumblr page featuring Bodhi dressed according to popular fashion trends. “We didn’t have any epic plans when we started our blog,” said Yena, who has worked as a fashion designer for Ralph Lauren.
“We were bored one Saturday afternoon so we decided to pass the time by dressing up our handsome Shiba in serious menswear. Everyone who has a dog has put clothes on their dog at some point, just to goof around, the following day, our Tumblr was featured on GQ Magazine’s website and it just snowballed from there. Soon, the fashion-savvy canine amassed an army of followers and there was no looking back after that. Bodhi started receiving countless requests for collaborations with fashion labels. Initially we got some criticism from people who thought he might be uncomfortable in human clothes,” said Dave.
Yena said, “Bodhi is a natural model that knows how to work with the camera. The dog likes to wear clothes that will get him the most attention and peanut butter, he knows he can pull off anything so he’s not all that concerned.”
Yena and Dave are currently working on a clothing line for dogs, and hope to collaborate on projects that benefit animal charities.
“We both decided to quit our jobs for this mainly as an excuse to take a break from the 9 to 5 and do something a little less ordinary for a bit,” Dave explained.
“We’ve been so blessed with Bodhi and we know that every animal has something special and unique about him or her, so we’ve never been more motivated,” he added.
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