Laurren Darr is on a mission to unleash pet style by elevating the overall visibility of the pet fashion industry through empowerment of pet fashion professionals.
She has over twenty years of marketing experience and has consulted with companies of all sizes— specializing in trade show marketing. Darr has won over 40 marketing awards and is a #1 best-selling author.
Most importantly, she’s been a pug lover since her first rescue to White Pines Tuttie circa age five. Tuttie was a magnificent creature that let little Laurren do everything with her. They played together, bathed together, ate together, and slept in the same bed. Most of all, Tuttie was completely happy to let Laurren dress her up, put clippy earrings and lipstick on her, and push her around in a shopping cart. She understands the deep roots and connections created between humans and animals through fashion because of the kinship. Her book about Tuttie, Lipstick On A Pug, won the Dog Writers Association of America Maxwell Medallion for 2015 Children’s Book of the Year.
Her publishing imprint, Left Paw Press, has printed numerous books on pet fashion, pug children’s, medical, racing, and coloring.
In August 2013, Laurren combined her marketing experience and lifelong love of pet fashionology to launch International Association of Pet Fashion Professionals, an organization created to provide educational materials for pet fashion professionals. She’s been named a “Paw-er Woman” by the Fidose of Reality blog and was a 2015 & 16 finalist for Pet Industry Woman of the Year by Women In The Pet Industry. Laurren also completed her pet fashion certification from Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City in 2015.
Laurren’s Chicago-area life is busy with her stock-car racing son, geneticist husband, and the most stylish dog at the race track, Bella.