CAMANO ISLAND – When Dorothy Bowler was 79, she designed her first bra.
At 80, she earned her first patent.
Now 81, she has landed her first modeling job.
An 8-foot by 4-foot portrait of Bowler will hang on Macy’s downtown Seattle store through October. The Camano Island woman is also strutting her stuff in a fashion show emceed by Seattle radio and TV personalities. Her entree into the fashion world is a result of Macy’s naming her one of Seattle’s 16 most inspiring breast cancer survivors .
It all started with irradiated breasts.
Three years ago, radiation treatments for breast cancer left Bowler’s chest and ribcage burned. She had endured similar treatments eight years earlier for colon cancer, but this time, she faced a unique challenge: bras.
Underwire poked her. Bands rubbed against her burns. Straps and clasps were painful.
Bowler said her doctor – “a gentleman” – told her to cut up her husband’s undershirts and place pieces of them on her vitamin E-slathered chest.
Bowler is a lady.
She used to work as an image consultant, teaching women how to complement their skin tone with certain shades of makeup and clothes. She also taught at a “finishing school” that helped girls transition into womanhood. She can still demonstrate the proper way to spin around and how to get into a two-door, four-seat car gracefully.
Old undershirts were not her idea of a bra.
So after scouring lingerie racks, she turned to the drawing board.
With arthritic hands, she cut and sewed.
Three tries later, she had the first version of the Gentle Bra. Without elastic straps, clasps, cups or a band, the soft cotton bra is designed to cradle breasts and prevent skin-on-skin contact.
She wore it to radiation therapy and drew admiration from nurses.
“It’s a little more graceful and has more dignity attached to it than your husband’s T-shirt,” said Ellen Canfield, a breast cancer screening nurse at Group Health in Everett.
Bowler said other patients noticed her bra and asked how they could get one.
So she decided to go into business.
In her younger years, Bowler had designed and constructed women’s clothing and hats out of her California home, but she had never applied for a patent or launched a Web site. Fax machine, Internet and marketing were foreign words to the gray-haired great-grandmother.
Bowler was overwhelmed but determined.
Unable to afford an attorney to guide her through the patent process, she decided to go at it on her own. Between sessions of radiation and chemotherapy, she researched patents in the library. Her husband of 62 years, Paul Bowler, drew on his experience as a retired engineer to create technical sketches for the patent.
“As a child, my favorite story was ‘The Little Engine That Could,’ ” Bowler said. “So throughout all my cancer – colon and breast – every time I felt I could not do it anymore, I remembered that story and, with my faith in God, I kept telling myself, ‘I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.’ “
In 2005, Bowler was awarded a temporary provisional patent for the Gentle Bra.
She researched the 20-year patent process and decided she needed an attorney to help her navigate the legalese. Bowler said the attorney was so impressed with all the work she had already done, he cut his fee in half. She sent in the necessary paperwork and is now waiting for word from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“I’ve been amazed that this 81-year-old woman who acts like she’s 65 or so has the energy to do this,” said Bowler’s friend Dr. Kaaren Nichols, a recently retired Seattle-based family medicine practitioner who specializes in women’s health.
“She’s not doing this to create a new business or for fun. She doesn’t need to do that. She does it because she really, truly wants to help people.”
The Bowlers transformed their basement into a design studio. Sheaths of interlock cotton fabric, measuring tape and an antique Singer sewing machine sit on wooden worktables. Clear plastic tubs hold dozens of bras ready for sale.
In the beginning, Bowler sewed each bra herself, custom-making garments for women with ribcages over 38 inches. She has since hired someone to sew the bras, but she cuts the fabric herself.
So far she’s sold 64 bras to women in 11 states and Canada. The bras cost $29.95 plus shipping and handling. Most business comes through her Web site, www.gentlebra.com, but bras are also sold at Virginia’s Feminine Boutique in Marysville and in several local clinics and hospitals.
Bowler is still undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. She will always suffer from nerve damage she received during treatment for colon cancer. Nonetheless, she says she’s grateful for the personal growth opportunities cancer has afforded her.
“We all have a choice on what we focus on,” she said. “When we are going through hard days, it is too easy to focus only on the negative parts, but there are always good things in every day if we look for them.”
Bowler was chosen from a pool of more than 80 nominees to become one of Macy’s inspiring breast cancer survivors. Canfield and one of Bowler’s five children wrote essays about her for the department store’s annual contest.
She’s already been in for an extensive photo shoot that involved music, strobe lights and fake eyelashes. Next up is the breast cancer survivor fashion show later this month.
So what do years 82 and 83 hold for Dorothy Bowler?
If she gets her way, a 20-year patent, a profit and the marketing know-how that will enable her to reach women in need of a better bra.
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