How a fashion designer turned her breast cancer diagnosis into a lingerie brand

Dana Donofree has always been a clothing designer.

At the age of 8, she started sewing her own clothes. She had a good teacher: her mom, who was a master tailor. She was an entrepreneur at heart, too, spending weekends making hemp necklaces and friendship bracelets to sell at school the next week. 

Eventually, she went to art school at Savannah College of Art and Design and started a career in fashion in New York City as soon as she graduated.

Then, at the age of 27, Donofree was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I got catapulted into this world that was designed for a much more mature woman than I was, and just didn’t understand why there weren’t beautiful and pretty things available for us,” Donofree told Technical.ly. “It felt like the world was telling me I was broken, and I didn’t want to feel like that.” 

She took her experience in fashion design and created AnaOno in 2014, a startup that makes bras designed for multiple breast cancer surgery outcomes. The name is a play on her own — it’s Dana Donofree, ‘DD free.’

A bra for every type of breast cancer patient

Patients diagnosed with breast cancer have two surgical choices, Donofree explained. One choice is to amputate and remove one or both breasts, the other is to have a breast tissue-preserving surgery where the lump is removed, called a lumpectomy.

On top of that, there are multiple reconstruction options.

“Something that we pride ourselves on is what we call chest inclusivity — two boobs, one boob, no boobs or new boobs,” Donofree said.

So, if a patient decides after a single breast amputation not to reconstruct, there are AnaOno bras for one breast, and for patients with asymmetrical breasts after a lumpectomy. There are bras for patients with no breasts, too, because even after a double breast amputation without reconstruction, patients still seek out beautiful bras that fit, she said.

“When I launched the line in 2014 and I brought all my friends over to try on the first line of bras, we were all different,” Donofree said. “You know, one friend was flat, one friend had one breast reconstructed. One friend had one boob removed. One had a flap reconstruction, one had an implant reconstruction, one had a lumpectomy, and it’s because there is so much choice.” 

While aesthetics are an important part of the AnaOno brand, post-operation bras are still a kind of medical device, and are designed with everything from surgical wound recovery to skin sensitivity due to radiation treatment in mind, as well as being free of the underwires used to support the breasts in traditional bras.

“For us, it’s not just about being underwire free,” Donofree said, noting that her designs, for example, put the seams in different parts of the bra, so the support sits around the rib cage rather than under the breast fold, where a lot of incisions happen. 

With so many outcomes and new breast cancer procedures being developed all the time, a big part of what Donofree does is listening to her customers, as well as medical professionals.

“We love our community and we love our customers, and they tell us everything — the good, the bad and the ugly,” she said. 

From bootstrapped to big retailers

Today, in addition to its own online retail space, AnaOno bras are carried by the large intimates retailers Soma and Victoria’s Secret. It’s sold in about 100 specialty boutiques throughout the US and internationally. A new line of AnaOno Plus bras is also available through five hospitals so far, servicing operating rooms directly and eligible to be covered by the patient’s insurance.

To get to this point, Donofree had to invest in the business idea she had started conceptualizing in 2011 herself, while she still had a full-time job.

“Women did not have as much access or opportunity to get funding as today,” she said. “Even what we have today is dismal, but over 10 years ago, it was even more difficult.”

She was told more than once by advisors that she was wasting her time and would never get funding.

“It was really disheartening early on, but I’m one of those people that also has the curse that when you say no, I work harder,” she said. 

Eventually, AnoOno got its first funding round in 2018, and another in 2021, and was able to scale the business. In total, the company has raised $2.37M at an undisclosed valuation, according to PitchBook.

“My ultimate goal for AnaOno is that wherever you shop for your intimates before breast cancer, you should have an option to shop there for your intimates after breast cancer,” Donofree said. “This is my whole-hearted push to make sure that 4 million plus women with breast cancer aren’t ignored in the fashion industry.”