Louise Wannier had founded three technology companies and earned national recognition for her marketing abilities when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. It meant stepping down as chairwoman at Enfish Software Inc.

After undergoing chemotherapy, Wannier started thinking about a new career.

“My grandfather was a textile merchant in Leeds, England. I grew up around it and I’ve always loved color and design,” said Wannier. So she enrolled at downtown L.A.’s Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising and earned a professional certificate in textile design.

She’d also long been sensitive to the problems that women with less-than-perfect shapes can encounter when shopping for clothing that flatters. So she paired her technological savvy with her new textile know-how and founded Internet clothing retailer MyShape Inc. in June 2005.

At Myshape.com, users create a profile. They answer 15 questions, record 24 measurements and state their style preferences and budget constraints. The site makes suggestions based on that information.

She began beta testing the company’s Web site in April, targeting women who are often marginalized by mainstream fashion.

“It’s brilliant,” said Laurelle Johnson, who runs her own company, Inner Wealth Communications. “I don’t like to shop, so all I had to do was input my measurements. I don’t even have to try it on.”

Wannier, who had been expecting to have 5,000 registered users at this point, finds herself with 20,000. She’s revised her projections upwards to 100,000 users by the end of the year. The site will launch in its final version later this month.

With her personal-shopping model, Wannier has been able to run MyShape like a department store, doubling prices of garments bought wholesale, without having to build and staff retail locations. Since the beta launch, Wannier has retooled to attract more fashion-conscious customers. She’s also expanding to petite, tall and plus sizes.

The online shopping market is currently worth about $7 billion of the $200 billion apparel industry and it is expected to grow at least 100 percent annually.

“We’re really trying to get the mainstream shoppers and make it available to all career or working women,” said Wannier.

She also hired Dianne Starnes, a long-time buyer for Nordstrom Inc., to help expand her offerings. Starnes has wooed several popular, hard-to-find designers, and MyShape now sells garments from nearly 100 designers.