Since this is our first “Third Thursday Throwback”, we should explain what this is all about. Every third Thursday of the month, we will post a blog entry that will describe in photos/words/links a very memorable event from Pupstar Sonoma history. We will not be able to transfer all of the content from our previous website to this new website. Therefore, this is a way to consolidate the information and share some of our favorite gems.
On May 3, 2009 Roxy, Blue and Bono came in 3rd place in the “Valentino The Last Emperor’s” Most Fashionable Pug contest. A nationwide contest with over 475 entries and which Mr. Valentino himself picked the winners. We are very honored.
Roxy and Blue were 2 years old and Bono was not quite 1 year old at the time of the photo shoot. Previous to this contest, we had only done holiday cards and entered local Halloween pet costume contests. The Valentino Most Fashionable Pug contest was the biggest and most intimidating contest that we had entered at the time.
We had no idea what Mr. Valentino was looking for in the winning costume photo. We were to show what our idea of “glamorous” was. Sue had made Roxy and Blue holiday parkas in 2008 with the intention of using them for a holiday card photo. We never got the holiday card shot because the snow was a no show that year. The Valentino Most Fashionable Pug contest became our opportunity to showcase the parkas but in a new way. Our inspiration: 3 glamorous pugs headed for Gstaad.
We scouted 3 locations and shot hundreds of photos in 2 days. Even though it was the most challenging project we had worked on at the time, it was also a lot of fun and we learned a lot. From that point on we were hooked on doing more photo shoots like the one we did for this particular contest.
Our prize for 3rd place was our choice of collar from House of Dog. We chose an embellished Valentino red collar with a bone charm with bling. Thank you!
The contest was a promotion for the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. Mr. Valentino is a pug lover. He owns 6 pugs and they were also featured in the movie.
The finalists and winners were featured in a number of blogs/websites on the Internet and in print. Here is a sampling of some of the sites, some are active still!
NY Post
USA Today
Honolulu Star Bulletin
Woof Report
Bay Woof
Fetch the Paper
Mike Kagee Fashion Blog
6 years later: When we see our Valentino Most Fashionable Pug contest entry photo, it brings back really great memories and is still one of our favorite Roxy, Blue and Bono photos. We now have upgraded most of our equipment and try to organize challenging photo shoots all year round.
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