Living it up

Rita Konig laps up goodies for the style-conscious pet

Dog and cat accoutrements have always seemed to me to fall into two camps: highly kitsch or deadly dull. That was until last week when I walked into Mungo & Maud, a dog and cat 'outfitters' on Elizabeth Street near Knightsbridge whose new store is dedicated to the needs of style aware pets and their owners.

The first thing you notice about this shop (something that instantly sets it apart from other pet shops), is that it doesn't have that horrid smell of dog food. It is designed by Seth Stein and owned by the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Nicola Sacher, who have family connections with highly bred retailers ranging from Marks & Spencer to the sadly defunct Jerry's Home Store (owned by Michael's brother Jeremy), and this aristocratic pedigree is immediately apparent here.

Mungo & Maud is plainly not the brainchild of a bored housewife with some spare capital, but a proper retail outfit that has been well-researched and beautifully presented. Wherever you look there is something covetable, from the jars of homemade dog biscuits that look good enough for anybody to eat to the leads and collars designed by the fabulous Italian designer Henry Beguelin.

Beguelin normally makes shoes and bags for Barneys in NY, but here he is In London SW, designing a range of leather goods for dogs for Mungo & Maud. They are extremely smart, particularly the ones with the coral beading detail. Mungo & Maud has its own line too, which is made in Florence - fabulous.

For about five seconds I was tempted to get a dog on the basis that I could then fit it out in one of these collars, but sense prevailed. A dog is not just for dressing up.

Beguelin is not the only good thing at Mungo & Maud - there are also vast quantities of dog bowls and brilliant dog beds in the style of LL Bean totes. This shop means the end of having to find the best of a bad selection in your local pet shop: and even if you think it ridiculous. it's all supremely well-designed. Now your dog can be matched harmoniously with your home decor, and even look good when it travels (Mungo & Maud has commissioned a range of bags for carrying dog grooming kits for holidaying pooches).

There are all sorts of fancy organic dog treats here too, along with dog shampoos from Harry Barker in New York, toile de Jouy toys, fleecy lambs, bright pink rubber flowers, great-looking plastic bones and, for the minimalist dog, a stick of rubber bamboo in neutral tones.

The cat things are pretty good too: pleasing knitted toys and embroidered linen bags to keep them in, and some wonderful melamine vintage cat bowls (Nicola, the owner, has found a stock of them, unused) which might even be good for children.

Inspired by Mungo's, I went in search of other good dog spots - first to William Yeoward on King's Road, partly because I knew Mungo & Maud was just the sort of store Yeoward would like to shop in for his Jack Russell and I fell sure there would be some dog-related objects in his own emporium. And there were: two of the most ravishing dog beds, one a large beige-linen buttoned cushion with sorbet-coloured buttons, and the other a nail-lacquer-red leather basket with a chocolate-brown cushion sitting in it and poppered corners like an oversize cufflink tray. Yeoward also has a selection of leads in orange and red leather and natural ostrich for the really swanky.

At the other end of the scale Oka, the mail-order company, has very smart rattan dog beds in sizes to fit all shapes of dog, with coloured cushions inside. The Pet Pavilion, which until now was the only shop I had ever heard people talking about in terms of pet buying expeditions, was packed to the gills with everything you could possibly need for dogs, cats or anything in between, but it had that pet shop aroma again.

Hidden among the dog tutus and tiaras, however, I did find something that no one should leave for the country without (not dog owners - they never notice their dogs' bad breath!): a tin of Yip Yap breath fresheners, the perfect thing to pop in the mouth of hot panters or over affectionate labradors keen to share your lunch.