Carolyn Bowles and Marilyn Wear:
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When Carolyn Bowles and Marilyn Wear were little sisters in Courtney, Mo., their father would take them on errands, including regular trips to the feed store.
"We'd go with Daddy to pick out the feed sacks we wanted, because we knew that later, through the labor of our mother, they would become our dresses," said Wear.
Their grandmother was a seamstress, too, one who usually refused to be bothered with a pattern. So they learned young and they learned well. By the time Bowles was a young bride in Grand Junction, Colo., she was confident enough to enter a sewing contest, and won a trip to Denver. Living near their extended family in Independence, Mo., for decades, both women sewed clothes for their children and even created their daughters' wedding gowns.
Still, they both seem a little awestruck that in their retirement, using those sewing skills and their innate creativity, they've forged a new career. Their cottage handbag enterprise is flourishing—and so are they.
Wear spent much of her earlier work life in retail at Halls on the Plaza, selling in the tabletop and cosmetics departments. Later she sold furniture at Dillards. She liked to carry hefty "saddle bags" to work, but would become frustrated when she couldn't find what she needed in their dark depths. So she cut up a plastic milk carton, leaving just a base, and placed it in the purse bottoms where she could fill it with necessities and easily lift it out.
That milk jug pattern was the concept Wear used when she stitched up her first bright handbag: a flirty, structured, seven-inch square with a huge flower on one side. The flower is a big part of the saga.
A woman of flair, Wear was fond of pinning big, bold flowers to her dresses and jackets. Many years ago, she worked with a young woman named Stacy who said it always made her happy when Wear wore a flower to work. Occasionally she would call Wear at home and say, "Marilyn, I'm feeling sort of down; would you wear a flower for me today?"
Said Wear, "Because of her, if I happened to have a friend facing a particularly difficult day, I would call her the night before and say, 'I'm wearing a flower for you tomorrow.' And when people would comment on the flower, I would be reminded of my friend in need and say a prayer for her."In October 2007, to support the Independence Junior Service League, Wear made her second bag—a zebra-fabric handbag with a large red flower, the design that has become their signature bag—donating it to be carried in the league's fall fashion show.
The Mark Shale store also contributed items to that fashion show. Afterward, the store manager approached Wear and asked her to bring her bags to the store for a trunk showing set for mid-December.
"I said, 'But this is the only purse I have!'" Wear recalls. "He told me that if I could just produce 12 to 15 purses, that would do."
That evening, Wear called Bowles and said, "Carolyn! Can you help me make purses?"
The sisters took 15 bags to Mark Shale in a snow-and-ice storm, and sold them all. To them, it was a sign. Wear called it "a God Thing."
Sewing the bags filled a void for Bowles, who had retired in 2005 after 41 years in banking and was getting antsy. Having lived for 40 years in Independence before moving to Leawood, she notes that "When we moved, I felt like I was leaving a big part of my family, even though we were going to be living next door to our youngest daughter and her family."
This business, on the other hand, made a fine way for the two women to stay connected and share in the joy of being entrepreneurs—comparing fabrics, ideas, and stories from customers, working together at shows.
Thus, Wear a Flower was born. Wear and Bowles capitalized the business without any borrowing, and they are the company. They do all the fabric shopping, sewing, embellishing, marketing, and shipping.
They craft each bag to be a work of art, embellished with a flower intended to make the owner and all who see the bag smile. The bags are compact, created to hold all of a woman's necessities in an organized and accessible manner. The interior is color-coordinated with the flower. The bags easily fold flat and, the women insist, the flowers are "indestructible." Each creation is signed by the designer, and inside every bag is tucked the sisters' story. They take pride in the words "Made in USA" that are printed on each bag's tag.
The sisters are well-known patrons of hobby and fabric shops, choosing textiles and colors that speak to them. Bowles leans toward tapestries, fall colors, and plaids; Wear is drawn to solids, allowing the flower to create the statement with its pop of color.
They each work from home, on household sewing machines rather industrial machines. They love the creative parts of the work. If they could outsource anything, it would be the time-consuming fabric-covered Masonite bottoms (which Carolyn's husband cuts as his contribution) or the handles, stitched with a stiff lining. They'd also gladly give up the business paperwork and the taxes.
They market their bags online at retail prices but sell for wholesale at shows. They participate in six or seven shows each year, most recently the Spring Boutique at the Kansas City Symphony Alliance Designers' Showhouse. Most of these opportunities come through word of mouth or through their presence at other shows, where "people pursue us to invite us to the next one!" said Bowles.
They plan to show at the Gift Gallery at Curé of Ars Catholic Church in Leawood in November.
For Wear and Bowles, selling handbags isn't just about pocket money, although the money is welcome and provides some fun. When Bowles and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, her business proceeds enabled her to take her entire family to the Big Cedar Lodge resort in the Ozarks.
No, selling the bags is mostly about emotional rewards, reflected in the stories that go with the sales.
For example, a woman who knew of their bags brought in a pair of jeans that had belonged to her son, who was killed in a car accident. She wanted the jeans made into a bag that her daughter could carry.
"While I sewed it, I felt like I was doing something sacred," said Bowles.
One time when they were delivering bags to a shop, a customer overheard the bags being discussed and approached the women.
"She said, 'I need a bag with a pink flower for a friend with breast cancer. I keep telling her she is going to come out of this smelling like a rose,'" said Wear.
Handbags from Wear a Flower are being carried all over the United States and, they know for certain, in England, Ireland, St. Croix, and Guam. One was carried in New York City's famous Easter Parade. Several local hospital gift shops stock them, including Missy's Mirror at St. Luke's. Bowles is a member of the Church of the Resurrection, which during May and June invited its member crafters to show their works; the bags were there. A zebra-print bag with a red flower was sold to a customer as a Christmas gift for Helen Thomas, the famed Washington, D.C., news reporter.
It has tickled the two to learn through this business that "Many women have purse fetishes!" Said Bowles, "As we age, it is not as much fun shopping for clothes or shoes—but for a lot of women, it's impossible to have too many purses!"
Wear and Bowles share a zest for life, strong creativity, and a love of people. They also have similar philosophies, which tend toward the Zen.
Wear, 68, has another side business, called "Shoestrings," helping people redecorate on a budget.
"I help them choose some of their key pieces and rearrange them," she said. "I teach people that it's possible to get to the point of saying, 'I have enough.' Living in spaces that are clean and sparse is very calming. Bare space is good."
They point to their belief that their work is driven by a higher power and that "life just unfolds; it is silly to try to engineer it oneself."
Says Bowles, 69, "Sewing is peaceful and creative. And we don't push the business at all; everything just comes to us."
Women will organize luncheons and invite a roomful of friends so Bowles and Wear can show their bags, for example.
Says Wear, "We don't like pressure!"
These born-and-bred "country girls," who as children picked potatoes in the fields at Courtney, have succeeded in creating a business that works for the people who patronize it and for themselves.
Would they have gone into business if their product didn't nicely fit their interests and make them feel good? No way. They like making the bags because the bags bring smiles—to customers and to themselves.
"When Marilyn gave me the first one she made me, I drove home with it beside me in the front seat and I felt like I had a new baby on board," Bowles grinned. "I couldn't stop looking at it!"
Would they encourage other senior women to begin a business?
"Only if they do it primarily for their own satisfaction, not for money," Wear said firmly. "I think it would be terribly stressful to have to worry about paying off a loan."
How has daily life changed in the two-and-a-half years since October 2007?
"I think you should ask our husbands!" said Bowles. "I suspect that they eat more cereal. When we're in a busy cycle, they think they're living high if they get a hot dog for supper!"
Wear a Flower
www.wearaflowershop.com
9005 Pawnee Lane
Leawood, KS 66206
Carolyn Bowles: 913-381-0228
Carolyn.Bowles@sbcglobal.net
Marilyn Wear: 816-350-7449
