Milan line offers canine couture for pampered pooches

Milan has long been the world's ready-to-wear fashion leader. Now, dogs are getting in on the Italian city's sartorial scene with a new line of haute couture for canines.

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, designer Giovanna Temellini kisses her dog Ulisse, an Afghan greyhound, wearing a winter coat created by Ms. Temellini, at the Temellini manufacture headquarters, in Milan, Italy. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Dog a Porter, by the Milan brand Temellini, offers clothing custom-fit for different breeds, ranging from the tiny Chihuahua to the stately greyhound. The line includes cashmere knits, nylon bomber jackets with tiny arms, Sherlock Holmes-style capes and lined raincoats.

The capes cost 170 euros ($208) and synthetically filled hooded parkas go for 210 euros ($256) to reflect the extra time it takes to get the fine stitching on the elasticized sleeves just right.

Designer Giovanna Temellini says fashionable dog clothes aren't just an indulgence. Her luxury outerwear not only protects pooches accustomed to being indoors when they are brought outside, but take into account the builds of various types of dogs, she said.

This image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, shows a label on a dog coat created by designer Giovanna Temellini, at the Temellini manufacture headquarters, in Milan, Italy. Milan has long been known for its pret-a-porter.  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In this image taken on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, Ulisse, an Afghan greyhound, wears a coat created by designer Giovanna Temellini at the Temellini boutique, in Milan, Italy. Milan has long been known for its pret-a-porter. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

"For me, a dog is well-dressed only when it has freedom of movement, when it is not constrained," Temellini said. "It is OK to dress a dog when it is cold, but a dog needs to live his live as a dog. This is important."

Speaking from personal experience, the designer notes that Ulysses, her long-haired Afghan Hound, requires five hours of grooming if he gets wet in the rain. A raincoat prevents the hassle, she said.

Temellini launched Dog a Porter a year ago alongside her 20-year-old eponymous clothing line for women. She opened a boutique in Milan's chic Brera neighborhood this week, selling women's ready-to-wear and canine couture side-by-side.

In this image taken on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, fashion designer Giovanna Temellini, top, talks as her dog Ulisse, an Afghan greyhound, wears one of her creations, at the Temellini boutique, in Milan, Italy. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, dog owner Amanda Smith stands with Ulisse, an Afghan greyhound, wearing a winter coat created by designer Giovanna Temellini, as they walk outside the Temellini manufacture headquarters, in Milan, Italy. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In fact, many of the dog garments have corresponding numbers for women, such as the long, flowing black cotton skirt a pet owner could wear while walking her dog outfitted in a black chenille jacket.

The market appears ripe for such a venture in fashion-conscious Italy, where some 7 million dogs are registered as pets, or one for every 3.7 families, according to statistics from ASSALCO, an association of producers of pet food and other pet items.

The money Italians lavished on dogs and cats grew 10 percent during 2013-2016 to nearly 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion), the association said in a 2017 report.

Temellini said the toughest part about designing for dogs was the sizing. The long bodies and stout thoraxes of dachshunds, for example, had to be taken into account. In all, the Dog a Porter line has five basic shapes.

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, customers Amanda Smith, left, and Giorgia, walk with Ulisse an Afghan greyhound, and a dachshund 'Pardo', wearing winter coats created by designer Giovanna Temellini outside the Temellini manufactor headquarters, in Milan, Italy.  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, chief designer Silvia Radaelli, left, and fashion designer Giovanna Temellini try a coat on Ulisse, an Afghan greyhound, a creation by Ms. Temellini at the Temellini manufactory headquarters, in Milan, Italy.(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

But the Temellini atelier also does made-to-order items, applying the experience it gained over decades making samples for some of Milan's top fashion houses, including Ermanno Scervino, Bottega Veneta and Max Mara.

"Something that made me laugh was to see a professional, a lawyer, come in with his Saluki, and he wanted a made-to-measure coat for his dog," Temellini said. "He said all his clothes were made-to-measure, and he wanted the same for his dog."

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, employees Angela and Jenny sew dog coats as half-breed Akita-Labrador 'Willy' stands by at the Temellini manufactory headquarters, in Milan, Italy. Milan has long been known for its pret-a-porter.  (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, Giorgia, a customer holds her dachshund 'Pardo', wearing a winter coat creation by designer Giovanna Temellini, at the Temellini manufactory headquarter, in Milan, Italy. Milan has long been known for its pret-a-porter. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Patrizia Radaelli is a happy Dog a Porter customer. She couldn't find anything to warm Eddie, her 14-year-old Yorkshire terrier-Volpino Italiano mix.

"He's a little old and gets very cold in the winter," Radaelli said. "Usually, he would get very fussy when I dressed him with other items. But never with Giovanna's fabrics."

Now, Eddie turns heads when he does his evening business wearing a striped cashmere sweater under a navy blue parka, Radaelli said.

In this image taken on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, chief designer Silvia Radaelli plays with 'Anubi, an Afghan greyhound, at the Temellini manufactory headquarters, in Milan, Italy. Milan has long been known for its pret-a-porter. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government scored a victory Tuesday with the Senate approving a law allowing anti-abortion groups access to women considering ending their pregnancies. The development revives tensions around the issue of abortion in Italy, 46 years after it was legalized in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The Senate, where the government has a majority, voted 95-68, giving final approval to legislation tied to European Union COVID-19 recovery funds that included an amendment sponsored by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

The law, already passed by the lower Chamber of Deputies, allows regions to permit groups “with a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to public support centers where women who are considering abortions go to receive counseling.

For the right, the amendment merely fulfills the original intent of the 1978 law legalizing abortion, known as Law 194, which includes provisions to prevent the procedure and support motherhood.

For the left-wing opposition, it chips away at abortion rights that opponents had warned would follow Meloni’s 2022 election.

“The government should realize that they keep saying they absolutely do not want to boycott or touch Law 194, but the truth is that the right-wing opposes women’s reproductive autonomy, fears women’s choices regarding motherhood, sexuality, and abortion,” Cecilia D’Elia, a Democratic Party senator, said at a protest this week against the legislation.

Under the 1978 law, Italy allows abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or later if a woman’s health or life is in danger. It provides for publicly funded counseling centers to advise pregnant women of their rights and services offered if they want to terminate the pregnancies.

But easy access to abortion isn't always guaranteed. The law allows health care personnel to register as conscientious objectors and refuse to perform abortions, and many have — meaning women sometimes have to travel far to have the procedure.

Meloni, who campaigned on a slogan of “God, fatherland and family,” has insisted she won’t roll back the 1978 law and merely wants to implement it fully. But she has also prioritized encouraging women to have babies to reverse Italy’s demographic crisis.

Italy’s birthrate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year with 379,000 babies born. Meloni’s conservative forces, backed strongly by the Vatican, have mounted a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, a rate that demographers say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing under the weight of Italy's aging population.

Meloni has called the left-wing opposition to the proposed amendment “fake news,” recalling that Law 194 provides for measures to prevent abortions, which would include counselling pregnant women about alternatives. The amendment specifically allows anti-abortion groups, or groups "supporting motherhood," to be among the volunteer groups that can work in the counseling centers.

“I think we have to guarantee a free choice,” Meloni said recently. “And to guarantee a free choice you have to have all information and opportunities available. And that’s what the Law 194 provides.”

The new tensions over abortion in Italy come against the backdrop of developments elsewhere in Europe going somewhat in the opposite direction. France marked International Women's Day by inscribing the guaranteed right to abortion into its constitution. Last year, overwhelmingly Catholic Malta voted to ease the strictest abortion laws in the EU. Polish lawmakers moved forward with proposals to lift a near-total ban on abortion enacted by the country's previous right-wing government.

At the same time, Italy's left fears the country might go the way of the U.S., where states are restricting access after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down landmark legislation that had guaranteed access to abortion nationwide.

Elly Schlein, head of Italy's opposition Democratic Party, told a conference on women on Tuesday that the country needs to establish an obligatory percentage of doctors willing to perform abortions in public hospitals, “otherwise these rights remain on paper only.”

FILE - People stage a protest on 'International Safe Abortion Day' to ask for more guarantees on the enforcement of the abortion law that they claim is seriously endangered by the high rate of doctors' conscientious objection in the country, in Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government wants to allow anti-abortion groups access to women considering interrupting their pregnancies, making abortion a flashpoint argument in Italy 46 years after it was legalized in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. The Senate on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, was voting on procedural legislation tied to EU COVID-19 recovery funds that includes an amendment sponsored by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)