[1] Although she was among the stars of the 1960s avant-garde boutique scene, Bowler was also highly commercial – producing designs for high-street chains such as Lilley & Skinner while she was still a student.
[5] In the same year, The Guardian noted: "Miss Bowler is a shoe doyenne at just past 20, a full-time designer with a teenage-boutique stranglehold, a very famous person in the pop-footwear world".
[10] For autumn 1968, Bowler was producing two-tone shoes, using material combinations such as snakeskin and suede, and had introduced what was described as a "medieval slipper" with ruching along the vamp.
[11] Sids' men's range was popular among visiting Americans – some bought six pairs at a time – and "sundry pop people", including Justin de Villeneuve and Paul McCartney.
[14] Bowler's work with leathers was not just restricted to shoes; in the early 1970s she designed a sheepskin coat for Anartex, a trading name for the Alexandria-based company Donald Macdonald.
[15] In the early 1970s, Bowler went to work in the US, establishing a company called Feet and making shoes for brands such as Charles Jourdan and Rayne, as well as designing one-offs for showbusiness clients such as Elizabeth Taylor.
After moving into other areas – including interior design – she then returned to the US and created the Miramonte label for Marx & Newman, then a major importer of Italian shoes into the United States.
Bowler's leather was also tanned in Italy at the SALP tannery, where she was a consultant – working with shoe designers such as Manolo Blahnik and Clive Shilton.