Pet Gala 2025: Which celebrity look inspired these couture canines?

Telegraph

20-05-2025

While the first Monday in May is renowned for the Met Gala, where the rich and famous show off their most avant-garde looks, the third Monday offers a charming alternative – the Pet Gala.
Hosted by Anthony Rubio, the pet couture expert, the event features a red carpet of dogs dressed in meticulously crafted replicas of the Met Gala looks from two weeks prior.
This year included canine counterparts to The View host Whoopi Goldberg, and singers Chappel Roan and Cynthia Erivo.
Attendees at the 2025 Pet Gala, for which tickets cost $300 (£236), were welcomed by a decorative flower wall, and a micro-red carpet which allowed the dogs to parade their couture looks.
The annual fashion show raises money for the American Kennel Club's Museum of the Dog – a New York museum that hosts one of the largest collections of dog-based art to support their mission to 'educate the public about the human-canine bond'.
Rubio, lead 'Pet Couturier' for the fashion show, has been recreating his favourite Met Gala looks on pets since 2013, and said the event is 'his favourite time of the year'.
With just two weeks to fashion the looks after seeing the stars walk the carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he told Good Morning America: 'I'm on three days with maybe three hours of sleep, it's been a labour of love.'
Tickets to the Met Gala cost $75,000 and those after a table will need to hand over at least another $350,000.
This year's theme, emulated on the canine models, was 'tailored for you', inspired by the Met's spring exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, which explores how men's style has shaped transatlantic black identities.
Rubio, who is also a womenswear designer, added: 'Fashion week is my vision but the Pet Gala is a challenge in adaptation.
'It pushes me to be more creative, and I absolutely thrive on it.'
He emphasised that the dogs' 'comfort and safety always come first' and this year the models ranged from Hershey the Maltese-poodle mix, to Bastian the terrier and Honey Bunches the Pomeranian.