Even Brooks Brothers, the classic American clothing company, paid tribute to Bodhi upon his passing. Photo: The New York Times
Bodhi, a Shiba Inu whose smartly tailored sport coats and luxurious knitwear helped make him the rare canine menswear influencer, recently died. He was 15.
To hundreds of thousands of fashion enthusiasts who followed him on social media, Bodhi was known simply as the Menswear Dog. His owner, Yena Kim, announced his death Monday (Nov 25) on Instagram, alongside an image of Bodhi wearing an arresting striped turtleneck.
Bodhi was seldom underdressed.
For more than a decade, he modelled herringbone overcoats and pageboy caps, buttery cashmere vests and tortoiseshell glasses.
In each image, his dignified snout poked out from beneath caramel-coloured fur; it was more typical to see him photographed in a bow tie rather than a dog collar.
“Listen, he wore it well,” said Lawrence Schlossman, the co-host of the fashion podcast Throwing Fits. “It was always the right Oxford, the right knit tie, a beautiful raincoat with the collar popped.”
Schlossman became familiar with the Menswear Dog account on Tumblr in the early 2010s, as the preppy look modelled by Bodhi gained traction in mainstream fashion.
He once layered a raglan-sleeve coat over a white button-up and realised that he was inadvertently channeling the dapper Shiba Inu.
“I can only imagine that wherever he is, he’s still getting 'fits' off,” Schlossman said.
Bodhi became a social media star after his owners began dressing him in menswear. Photo: The New York TimesRead more: Fashionable pet parents are splurging on their animal friends more than ever
Kim adopted Bodhi from a pet store on the Upper East Side in 2009, when she was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Named after Patrick Swayze’s character in the 1991 film Point Break, he sat by her side while she practiced draping and pattern-making.
In 2013, Kim and David Fung, her husband at the time, dressed the dog up in some clothing samples from her job as a designer at Ralph Lauren.
“I fully expected him to not be okay with it,” Kim, now 38, said. “But he just kind of sat there and smiled at me.”
They took a photo and posted it on Tumblr. Bodhi’s star was born.
The dog became a darling of the fashion press, pictured in GQ and Harper’s Bazaar. He modelled for Coach and Salvatore Ferragamo and released a capsule collection with Nike.
In 2015, Kim and Fung released a book, Menswear Dog Presents The New Classics: Fresh Looks For The Modern Man (in it, Bodhi wagged his tongue while wearing a Fair Isle sweater).
Some of Bodhi’s attire came from vintage stores and other pieces were custom-made for him by Kim.
“He had the exact measurement of a men’s medium-size neck,” she said. “Neck ties, bow ties – he could just wear them beautifully.”
Outside the fashion world, Bodhi was sassy and outgoing, with a habit of pilfering steak from guests’ dinner plates. He savoured steamed sweet potatoes and wintertime walks on the beach at Jacob Riis Park in Queens.
In 2020, he got a younger companion: a downy-white Jindo named Luc.
In the last two years of his life, Bodhi struggled with kidney illness and spinal issues, Kim said. He died in Brooklyn, in Kim’s arms.
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“The thing about Bodhi is he actually brought people together,” she said. “Outside of these photographs that were really fun to look at, he really was a connecting factor in pretty much all of my relationships.”
The sentiment was echoed by Bodhi’s fans on Instagram, many of whom had never met the dog, but mourned him anyway.
Even Brooks Brothers, the classic American clothing company, paid tribute.
“We always loved collaborating with Bodhi,” the company said in reply to Kim’s post. “We know he will be missed by so many.” – ©2024 The New York Times Company
