About Us
Meet Nicki & Gill
Barker & Browns started in 2017 with Nicki, a lifelong love of dogs, more than 40 years behind a sewing machine and a need for a practical coat for her Labrador, Freddie, after his hydrotherapy.
Nicki had spent years sewing everything from clothing to ballroom gowns, but it was making a coat for one of her own dogs that started something completely unexpected.
What followed were countless hours, sleepless nights and a lot of trial and error, as Nicki worked to perfect the pattern, fit and sizing for what would become the Original Dino Dog Coat®.
Nicki wasn’t alone through those early days. She had help from Yas, her now daughter-in-law, who was there through the ups, downs and everything in between. Yas helped keep Nicki sane when things got hectic, and the two of them had a lot of laughs along the way. She’s an important part of those early Barker & Browns days.
And all that hard work paid off because nearly a decade later, we’re still using that same pattern and sizing Nicki developed right back at the beginning.
The name Barker & Browns came from Nicki’s three Labradors. Bella was our original “Barker”, while chocolate Labs Freddie and Frank were the “Browns”. Sadly, all three are no longer with us, but they’ll always be a huge part of the Barker & Browns story.
These days, Nicki has two spaniels, Ollie and Vinnie, who have naturally inherited the important role of Barker & Browns product testers and models
And then along came Gill…
Gill first discovered Barker & Browns as a customer through the Instagram account she had for her dog, HoneyB and they eventually met in person at a show and a friendship quickly followed.
As Barker & Browns became busier, Gill started looking after the social media and attempting to organise Nicki (a job she still has today 😂).
Then, around 2021, Gill and her daughter Jess went along to a class for a sewing lesson -and the rest is history.
Gill learned to sew, became Nicki’s business partner and co-owner of Barker & Browns, and somewhere along the way Nicki and Gill became the best of friends.
HoneyB sadly passed away in January 2025, but without her, Gill and Nicki may never have met and Barker & Browns could have been a very different story. ❤️
Today, Gill’s dogs are BumbleB, Jackson (JJ) and Tommy, a little failed foster Chihuahua who joined the family in 2025. They’re never too far away while she’s working and, like Nicki’s dogs, are regularly called upon for the very important job of Barker & Browns product testing. 🐾
Gill originally trained as a barber, a skill nobody expected would become relevant to a dog coat business until 2026, when she shaved Nicki’s hair for Brave the Shave, helping raise more than £1,500 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Today we run Barker & Browns together from our separate home workrooms.
We actually live around 70 miles apart, but we have screens connecting our workrooms for most of the working day, so it usually feels like we’re working in the same room. Between the two workrooms, we’re sewing, answering messages, packing orders, talking to customers and generally trying to keep Barker & Browns running, usually with a dog or two somewhere close by.
And then there’s Jess…
Jess is Gill’s daughter and the creative hands behind many of our extra-special Limited Edition designs.
A trained dog groomer, Jess actually had her own grooming business at just 18 before deciding there was a whole world out there to explore.
Now 34, she’s still travelling it!
When she’s not off on another adventure, Jess creates some of our most elaborate Limited Edition pieces, including our fabulous Sparkle Dragons with their wings, tails and individually stitched details.
Jess was at that original sewing lesson with Gill too.
The thing that connects us all…Dogs. ❤️
They’re the reason Barker & Browns exists, the reason Gill and Nicki met and the thing that has always connected Nicki, Gill and Jess.
Our dogs have inspired us, tested our creations, modelled more coats than they probably ever wanted to.
Barker & Browns has grown enormously since Nicki made that first coat back in 2017, but we’re still a very small business at heart.
And after all these years, we’re still working towards the same mission: