630 — Westminster Kennel Club Fashionista Advice
Westminster Kennel Club Fashionista Advice
Host Laura Reeves is joined by Veronica Wolfe of Best In Show Clothes, talking about that *perfect* WKC outfit, hair, nails, makeup and more.
“So, you know Westminster, it is the premier dog sport event of the year,” Wolfe noted. “It is the second oldest sporting event in the nation only behind the Kentucky Derby and then only by two years. It’s been going on since 1877. So you have to give some respect to the event. Very prestigious, limited number of dogs, the juniors invitation only.
“There’s a few factors you need to consider. One is the event, of course. You know, and how do you get ready and how do you dress for Westminster? My first thought would be the way you get ready and appropriate for really any dog show. You’re representing your breed. If you have a kennel, you’re representing your kennel. If you’re a handler, you’re representing your client’s dogs. If you’re an assistant, you’re representing your handler,
“So everybody should look professional, okay? So you need to have professional clothing and you need to have all the support factors that we talked about in our first podcast. You’re going to be on national television by all the possibilities. If you’re not on national television, then I’m sure your breed’s going to be on YouTube, right? Yes. So have those good shoes on. Have the good support wear on. Don’t skip the pantyhose on this one, that kind of thing.
“But you also need to consider the weather. You need to consider the location. Everything’s not indoors anymore. So let’s run down a couple of those things.
“The temperatures in May and New York are gonna be 71 high day, 54 low. That’s average. So if you’ve got an eight a.m. ring time and now they’re outdoors, right? You need to consider that. You need to dress appropriately for that eight a.m. ring time. If you’ve got to change later on because woohoo, you made it to groups, then you can plan for that. But consider the weather.
“It can be humid and it can be hot in May also so you’ll want to consider that when you’re debating between the Tahari suit versus the wool blend St. John. It can also be wet. The average rainfall in that area in May is 3.9 inches to give you an idea. In eastern Washington, that’s like a quarter of our rainfall for the year. So prepare for that. Bring a raincoat. You don’t want to, you know, have that beautiful suit or a silk blend suit, get water on it. So the weather you need to consider, the time of day, once the schedule comes out, you need to consider for what you’re wearing.
“And then you’ve got groups and the finals for juniors, moves indoors. I would say be mindful that that indoor carpet is green. You might want to consider what you’re wearing with that. I’d be careful of wearing a similar green. – One giant green blob. With that color, a lot of people love to wear purple to Westminster ’cause Westminster’s purple and gold. But then a lot of people are wearing purple. So you need to be aware of that.
“I think blue and green always go really well together. Depending on your dog if you’re of the mindset that you prefer to really stay in the background, grays, blacks and tans can go nicely with that color carpet. Certain red tones if you do the blue based reds and not the orange based reds, I think the blue based reds almost leaning towards burgundy would be okay with that.
“You want to present a very professional image without distracting from the dog and that the dog should be the center of attention. If you love bling and you want to wear it great. There is a love of bling in the dog show world and I sell a lot of bling online and in my booth. If you’re not careful, I think it can be distracting.
“And juniors, can I address you a minute? Because I have a junior. You know, you or your parents do not need to go out and buy a six hundred to a thousand dollar suit for this show There are gorgeous Taharai, Le Suit, Casper. All those. You can get beautiful suits that accentuate your dog that aren’t St. John and if you just have to have a St. John, make sure that it’s age appropriate and it doesn’t look like a St. John that should be on somebody maybe more my age.
“You want to look your age. If you’re young, you want to look young, professional, neat, clean, your hair back out of your face. Yeah, it’s prestigious, but you don’t have to wear or own or buy a St. John. Of course, I’d love to sell you one, but you know, it’s not necessary.”
611 – Foundations for Success at the Dog Show: Shoes and Shapewear
Foundations for Success at the Dog Show: Shoes and Shapewear
Veronica Wolfe, owner at Best in Show Clothes
Veronica Wolfe, owner of Best in Show Clothes, joins host Laura Reeves with professional advice on shoes, shapewear and other foundations for success at the dog show.
“I’ve become passionate about good shoes,” Wofe said. “And I’ve been known, a couple handlers can attest to this, of grabbing people and going, you need to get out of those shoes because you will have hip and knee and back problems before you’re 35 if you don’t. So, yeah, it’s important.
“If you can find a small shoe store in your area that actually has a fit specialist … I would be go to one. I would run to one. But you also need to know a little bit about your own foot issues. Do you roll in? That’s called pronating. Do you roll out? There are different things. Do you have high arches? Low arches? There are running stores now that you can go in and put your feet on things and it will show you your arch. There’s a couple things that you want.
“You do want some cushioning. We’re in concrete all day. I’m not running circles, but I’m standing in a booth. You know, we’re in concrete all day. People are running all day. You need something with some good cushion.
“You want to look for a non -slip sole. Some of the stores online now actually actually say non -slip. If you need an arch, you need a good arch. Arch supports. You can get them for $40, $50 at running stores. I’ve seen them in sections sometimes at like TJ Maxx and Ross. And the over -the -counter ones, I’ve been told by a shoe specialist, are as good as the custom $400 podiatrist ones.
“It almost seems like there’s more options for guys and you’ve got this balance, right? So you can get a nice leather shoe for an indoor show, but you’re going to ruin that leather shoe at eight a.m. in the morning when there’s dew outside. So, you’ve got some nicer looking skater shoes, but the problem with those is there’s generally very little arch support.
“I have a number of (women) clients who do not like the way their calves look, and they’ll be in boots even in the summertime. I think they look quite attractive if you’re wearing a skirt and a blazer or maybe if you want a denim skirt. I would just say try and keep a nice line between them so you have a skirt then you’ve got a gap and you’ve got your skirt. Maybe black hose or tights that make that transition seamless, so it’s not like this distracting line there. But you’ve got some really comfortable boots out there that will have that arch support or it’s easy to insert one in it.
Pro tip from Laura:
Pro tip from a handler perspective: have more than one pair of shoe for each day.
Change shoes, because even if it’s just changing the angle of your heel this much, it makes an enormous difference. Pat Rogers is the one who taught me that a million years ago as a handler, change your shoes at lunch, and it makes all the difference in the world.
Pro tip from Veronica:
don’t let your shoes get run down. If you are an exhibitor that’s going out every weekend, six months max, you need to toss those shoes.
For more on the essentials of foundations under our clothing, listen in to the full episode.