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A sequence of outfit changes in quick succession in the changing room of the boutique or in front of the walk-in closet is a popular stylistic device in American romantic comedies, for briefly summarizing the whole madness of the outfit question in an entertaining way.
And by the way, hacking through a whole clothes rack full of more or less matching outfits.
You know that from Julia Roberts films or from the Bridget Jones blockbusters.
At the beginning of December, this genre was enriched with a heart-wrenching comic variant that has become a viral phenomenon.
And which has introduced a winged word in fashion that, even after the pandemic, it will no longer be possible to imagine linguistic usage without it.
Icelandic knit with blue plush pompons from dogs-wardrobe.com
Source: Courtesy of Thomas Shapiro
dogs-wardrobe.com
Enter Tika the Iggy: a small, gray bitch of the Italian Greyhound or Greyhound breed.
Tika lives in a suburb of Montreal and shows her favorite outfits one after the other in front of a white wardrobe in a quick-cut TikTok video - which she allegedly couldn't wear because of the pandemic.
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With big, dark eyes she looks out of a faux fur coat in a poisonous patchwork design, a rust-red dog sweater in an Icelandic pattern and a matching knitted hat with two blue plush pompons and cuffs made of the same material or a bright yellow jogging suit with side stripes.
The clip is accompanied by a Mickey Mouse-style voice that laments in an accusing Latino accent, as known from Sofía Vergara from the sitcom "Modern Family".
She lists all the outfits from 2020 that she wanted to show again, but which she has never been able to wear because of the pandemic.
More fashionable than some people: Tika in patchwork plush from houndaround.co
Source: Courtesy of Thomas Shapiro
houndaround.co
"Loved it, couldn't wear it".
With this simple sentence that accompanies every outfit, Tika manages to sum up all of the pent-up fashion frustration of an industry and the world beyond.
The video hit.
The clip now has seven million likes on TikTok, and her profile has 13 million hearts.
Tika the Iggy (Iggy is the abbreviation of Italian Greyhound) now has almost 950,000 subscribers on Instagram.
Her fans include Hollywood greats like Sharon Stone, Diane Keaton and Brooke Shields, but also almost every fashionable person from Derek Blasberg to Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis.
Sofía Vergara, born in Colombia and currently America's best-paid series actress, used the template cleverly and shot her own version of “Loved it, couldn't wear it” including a change of outfit in front of the wardrobe in homage to Tika for her 21 million Instagram followers.
To date, the clip has almost 3.8 million views.
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The dog then received the pop-cultural accolade from hip-hop icon Lizzo, who had a bikini with a cape tailored from the same patchwork faux fur.
In the caption, she called the dog “an actual bad bitch”, which can be translated as bad bitch, but in the language it means the highest form of recognition.
After all, Lizzo had ennobled herself as “100% that bitch” in her hit “Truth Hurts”.
Tika is likely to be the first "dog fluencer".
Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld's Birman, was also an internet sensation, but she probably benefited primarily from the fame and influence of its owner.
Tika made it without a step.
She has since been interviewed for the American “Vogue” and posted her own catwalk compilation for the virtual couture shows in Paris, which uses the same helium voice to underline the outfits with the Madonna quote “Strike a pose” and other slogans.
Dog owner Thomas Shapiro and husband Louis
Source: Courtesy of Thomas Shapiro
Behind Tika's success as a "model and gay icon", as she calls herself in her profile, are her two owners, Thomas Shapiro and his husband Louis.
Tika now has an estimated 200 outfits, says Shapiro in an Insta interview, many of which are stowed in boxes in the basement.
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In addition to the entertainment value, the outfits also have a practical background.
In Montreal it is simply too cold for wind chimes, which is why you cannot go outside most of the year without warming protection.
In winter, Tika also needs shoes on her paws that protect her against the aggressive road salt.
200 outfits and matching shoes
The individual outfits also have another reason: With its thin, high legs and aerodynamic torso, the greyhound does not fit into any normal dog clothing available on the market.
Out of this need, a small scene of their own of providers of custom-made wind chimes has developed.
Her favorite labels, Tika revealed in an interview with Vogue, are Hound Around, Grig Paris, BonGoof NYC and Loko Pet Apparel.
But she has meanwhile also developed a fondness for human fashion designers like Marine Serre and secretly dreams, so she coughed dictated to the American fashion magazine into the block, of a bag by designer Telfar Clemens.
That should be in the mail after this mention.
You can find all this hype about dogs and their videos, which has meanwhile led to countless imitators, grotesque and not animal-friendly.
But Tika doesn't appear to be deliberately tortured in any of the videos.
And to want to see from their success that fashion has basically hit the dog is not enough.
Rather, Tika has become a kind of global therapy dog that provides a little welcome distraction in times when fashion enthusiasts struggle with their well-stocked wardrobes and when the usual gratuity systems such as a shopping tour on the world's luxury shopping streets are prohibited for the time being.
Folklore knit in Olympic style: In this outfit, Tika defies sub-zero temperatures
Source: Courtesy of Thomas Shapiro
That this pent-up desire for occasions for extravagant outfits is already reflected in fashion can be seen from the success of the Netflix series "Bridgerton".
A new form of escapism can also be seen in the designer’s collections in the rediscovery of marabou feathers and glittering sequins.
With a healthy dose of Comic Relief, one Montreal little dog just got it right to the point.
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