Arden Pang always wanted a dog, but her mom’s allergies meant no pets allowed. To satisfy her love for animals, Pang along with her mom, Rosana Lam, created Darling Dear Co. The dog and cat accessories line features a variety of bows, collars and leashes, and over 50 prints to choose from.
“We got back from Japan on a little trip, and we had bought a lot of fabric at the time without a plan on what to do with it,” says Pang. “We came across some other stuff on Etsy, but a lot of people were doing collars, so we thought we should try that because I hadn’t seen anything like that locally at the time.”
The mother-daughter duo started Darling Dear Co in 2016. Lam does the sewing while Pang does the product photography, website design and customer service. The pair got their start at craft fairs around the city from the Butterdome Craft Fair to the Royal Bison, but now all their focus is on e-commerce. Darling Dear Co ships across Canada and has been stocked in retailers in Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton.
“It’s kind of grown into more of a long term business for my mom,” says Pang, who helps out part-time outside of her day job as a physiotherapist. “It’s something that she plans to continue in her retirement too, because it’s a fun business.”
Pang says the bestselling patterns are the Rifle Paper Company floral prints and sailor bows, which are “a bit of a girly option.” As of right now, Darling Dear Co products are only available online, but Pang says it’s working to get the bows stocked locally.
Shop Darling Dear Co at darlingdearco.com
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