Story by Clare Press
Read Clare’s full story here
NEW BYRON Bay resident, iconic Aussie frock designer, Jenny Bannister, is has a new project: she’s designing dog coats made from upcycled rubbish and modelled by her three-year- old Airedale terrier, BooBoo.
“The tops of shampoo bottles can be very decorative,” says Jenny Bannister. “I’m a real bower bird. I like colourful bright things, always have.”
“BooBoo’s not one of those stuck up little dogs who generally wears a coat, but he puts up with it if we tell him he looks good,” says Jenny, who earlier this year made the tree change from Melbourne to Byron Bay.
“BooBoo is a chick magnet. When we took him to the farmer’s market, everyone wanted to know why he was wearing a HiViz coat made out of an old car windscreen protector.” BooBoo’s natty silver jacket features punkish straps and a built-in spade.
Jenny closed her eponymous womenswear label in 2009 after more than 30 years in business.
She says it was no longer cost effective to manufacture locally. It sounds like she was sick of the ever growing mountain of stuff society is drowning in, too.
“There has to be a reason to make something, you don’t just do it for the hell of it,” she says.
Dogs aren’t allowed at the Farmer’s market Jenny!! 🙂