Few fur families are as picturesque as Tory Burch and her two golden-hued miniature poodles, especially when spotted frolicking across the pristinely manicured lawn of her sprawling Hamptons pile.
Burch welcomed Chicken to the family in 2019: The pup was initially intended as a gift for her mother as a later-in-life companion, reminiscent of a standard poodle Reva Burch had previously owned. However, Chicken, a tough-love kind of gal, became a part of the Burch-Roussel brood. Next came Slim, Burch’s second canine charge, who has, over the past six years, proved to be Chicken’s endearing if slightly bumbling counterpart—like the little Velcro brother any eldest dog sister wishes she always had.
Photographed by Noa Griffel
Photographed by Noa Griffel
At first glance, Chicken and Slim seem like a likely match, though the duo came together under harrowing circumstances. On one evening when Chicken was still a skittish youngling, Burch experienced the most gut-wrenching happening of any New York City dog owner: A car swerved toward them, Chicken escaped her leash—and was gone. “She had dodged into the park and we couldn’t find her,” Burch recalls. “My kids put flyers everywhere, and so we kept having sightings, and people then pretending they had her. I saw the best and worst of humanity in that.” Three days, one reel of CCTV footage, a viral call for help on Instagram, and one 4 a.m. exchange later, Chicken was returned safely. “Slim was her security, her little brother, because she needed a friend,” says Burch. “He was sort of her therapy dog.”
Now they’re just two pooches in a pod with a professional comp card to match. You might recognize them as goofy yet well-groomed mascots from any number of Tory Burch campaigns over the years. “When they were puppies, they were just so cute that it was hard not to [include them],” says Burch. “We started to put them in some of our T Monogram totes. And when they would come to the office, they were sort of perfect because they actually liked it—almost as if they were posing a bit.” The duo also makes periodic appearances on the brand’s social media channels, like in one AI-generated dog-filled floating hot-air balloon “Happy Birthday” post to Burch on TikTok. “I wish I could take credit for that—that was my very creative team who did that,” she says, laughing.
