New Jersey native Darius Brown’s company, Beaux and Paws, designs bow ties for shelter animals to help them get adopted, Today reported. He knew that if cats and dogs wore his stylish bow ties, there was no way someone wouldn’t want to take them home.
Beaux and Paws combine both of Brown’s passions: fashion and animals.
Darius would help his sister, Dazhai Brown-Shearz, make hair ribbons while she was in cosmetology school to help him refine his fine motor skills and improve other tasks he struggled with, like tying his shoes.
It worked! Brown became interested in fashion and would design vibrant bow ties for himself, which he told Today he wears “literally everywhere.” His bow ties were so popular that people would stop him on the street and ask where he got them.
One day, Brown found out that some of the shelters couldn’t accommodate all the animals displaced by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. So he decided to help out and sent a bunch of bow ties to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Since then, he has been shipping them to shelters all over the country.
With more than 53,000 Instagram followers and a personal letter of commendation from former President Barack Obama, Beaux and Paws has become a massive success!
Brown plans on using the money he raised on GoFundMe towards a summer trip that will take him to five different states so that he can deliver his bow ties to shelters personally.
“We’re definitely very proud of Darius,” his mom told Today. “He’s overcome a lot and he’s still on his journey of overcoming a lot of things. He just keeps going for what he believes in.”
