Laurren Darr has been a plumb pug crazy dog lover since her first pug rescue of 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 laundry cart. Darr understands the deep roots and connections created between humans and animals through fashion because of this kinship. As a result, Tuttie served as the inspiration for the Pet Fashion Guild decades later. 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. Laurren is on a mission to unleash pet style and the pet fashion business by empowering pet fashion professionals (and those who aspire to be) who strengthen the bonds between pets and humans through their creative work. Darr has over twenty years of marketing experience and has consulted with companies of all sizes- specializing in trade show marketing with many of those organizations. Darr has won over 40 marketing awards and is a #1 best-selling author. Her publishing imprint, Left Paw Press, has printed numerous books on pet fashion, pug children's, medical, racing, and coloring books like PugDala Coloring Book that also won a Maxwell Medallion. In 2013, Laurren combined her marketing experience and lifelong love of pet fashionology to launch the Pet Fashion Guild, an organization created to provide educational tools and materials to the pet fashion industry. She's been named a "Paw-er Woman" by Fidose of Reality and was a 2015 & 16 finalist for Pet Industry Woman of the Year. In 2018, she was named a Woman of Influence by Pet Age Magazine. She also completed her pet fashion certification from Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City in 2015. Her Indianapolis-area life is busy with her race car driving son (Zachary Tinkle), geneticist husband (Brad Tinkle), and the most stylish dog at the race track, Bella.
