I
t’s the 1920s, when aviation was still just for the hardy. In the pale light before daybreak, with the biting chill of altitude in the air, a pilot’s clothing serves as armour against the elements, each layer fortifying both body and resolve. One can almost hear the creak of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s frost-stiff leather jacket and indulge in the aroma of hide and oil mingling with the sharp tang of fuel as his Latécoère aeroplane skims the stratocumulus. (Saint-Exupéry, a French airmail pilot, penned The Little Prince and Night Flight — required reading on the avgeek curriculum.)
Women were also charting new horizons in the skies during this pioneering era. And they were shaping the guidelines that gave flight its signature tailored style too. Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, favoured loose gabardine trousers, silk blouses, and scarves that caught the slipstream, writing that flying clothes must be “windproof, warm and unrestrictive”.
Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, photographed in 1932
Earhart parlayed her trail-blazing spirit into the couture world with Amelia Earhart Fashions, a clothing line blending elegance and utility, weaving in aviation-inspired accents such as propeller buttons, parachute-cord belts and fabrics drawn from flight. Sold in department stores such as Macy’s and Marshall Field’s, the line lasted only a season, a casualty of the Great Depression, but foreshadowed today’s celebrity fashion brands and reflected her belief that fashion, like flying, should be about emancipation, practicality and the timeless appeal of adventure.
