Last May, when Malad resident Manisha Shah, 50, visited Alita D’Souza to deliver a dress she had made for her, she met Buddy, Alita’s two-year-old golden retriever. She cautiously bent down to touch the bandana around his neck. “The material is itchy,” she told D’Souza. “Dogs can’t tell you but would you wear it?”

This conversation resulted in Shah making a bandana for Buddy who is three and a few months now, and a few months on, she launched The Fur Buddies, an accessories brand for pets as well as pet parents, with his owner. “In 2018, I had returned to designing ethnic wear after a hiatus of many years. In the lockdown, I found the time to research for creating products for animals, something I never imagined myself to do,” says Shah, who delved into researching products, tearing them apart to study their making and to find flaws that they could solve in their own line.