The 26-year-old businesswoman behind Maryland-based Route One Apparel, has been appointed to the the Maryland Tourism Coalition, the state’s official tourism board, by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican.
The company made the announcement via its Facebook page on Thursday in a post showing founder and CEO Ali von Paris holding the official appointment document, dressed in a Maryland-flag skirt sold on her company’s website.
A 2012 graduate of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Ms. von Paris started her company in her dorm room two years earlier after the College Park bar she worked at went out of business.
Route One Apparel specializes in clothing and accessories that incorporate Maryland-inspired designs — Maryland-flag short and bikinis are among the wares for sale — although according to the company website, the company hopes to soon expand its collection to include other states and universities.
In the summer of 2015, when Gov. Hogan was battling cancer, Route One Apparel launched a popular “Hogan Strong” line of clothing to raise money for lymphoma research.
“This design was really a collaborative effort by designers, staff and customers,” Ms. von Paris told The Diamondback newspaper in July 2015. “Customers submitted a request for Hogan support shirts on our Route One Apparel Facebook page.”
In November, Mr. Hogan announced his chemotherapy treatments had been successful and he was “100 percent cancer free.”
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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