Bichon Frise archive tees, sweatshirts and hoodies

Sailors carried these small white dogs around the Mediterranean from at least the fourteenth century, trading them at ports and leaving one line on Tenerife, which gave the breed an early name. They rose through the Spanish and French courts, fell out of fashion after the Revolution, and spent the nineteenth century working French streets and circus rings, where the quick learning and the natural showmanship were an asset. The coat is the maintenance: it does not moult so much as tangle, and it asks for attention every week. What owners recognise is the sudden lap of the room at full speed, the spring in the walk, and the flat refusal to be left in a different room to everyone else. The archive plate is drawn loose around the coat and precise around the eyes.