By Caroline Weber, ’16
Growing up in Kansas, Amelia Earhart was viewed as a “tomboy.” Instead of playing with dolls, she could be found climbing trees and hunting rats. She did, however, enjoy designing clothing during weekly sewing lessons, one of the few typically female activities that she would continue to practice throughout her life. Born during a time when the issue of women’s rights were becoming more prevalent throughout society, Earhart refused at a young age to conform to conventional gender norms. She began collecting newspaper articles of successful women in male-dominated fields as inspiration; these articles would be foundational to Earhart as she herself would go on to become a forceful female role model for many who took her successes in the aviation industry as a sign of impending gender equality. By the age of 35, statements such as “Tradition with a capital T bars women from everything” would be commonplace in Earhart’s vocabulary. Although Earhart never accepted the title of feminist, her occupation and public lectures provide evidence to her passions for redefining gender norms. Earhart pursued these redefinitions not only in the air but in her revolutionary approach to fashion. As one of the first female celebrities to endorse and market a fashion line, Earhart normalized the concept of the masculine, pant-wearing woman.
After completing schooling, Earhart took up a position as a nurse’s aide in a military hospital during World War I. Although she had always been fascinated by planes, it was here that Earhart solidified her quest to become a licensed aviatrix. Earhart was quick to notice that females were the minority in the field: the young pilot witnessed men obtaining flight lessons for free through military enrollment, while women had to save their money for expensive classes. In the early twentieth century, women were not encouraged to participate in male dominated fields like aviation; it was believed that women posed an economic threat to their male counterparts. However, Earhart and her first flight instructor, Anita “Neta” Snook, continued with her lessons.
It was women like Earhart and Snook who pushed the gender norms not only through occupation but also through wardrobe. By 1911, the famous French designer Paul Poiret had designed the first pair of fashionable harem pantaloons for women. Although his design was extravagant and seemed to belong in a dramatic play, the Poiret was revolutionary for even thinking that women could wear the typical male style of pants. Amelia Bloomer had been a supporter of bloomers, designed in the 1850s, but these were still strictly garments for women. Poiret’s design came too early in the twentieth century shift toward women’s work outside the home; pants would have to first be a wardrobe requirement for work before they could be a fashionable garment. Coincidentally, the first female pilots license was awarded to Harriet Quimbly the same year that Poiret’s harem pantaloons premiered.
While working in at the military hospital, Earhart and others were first introduced a women’s pantsuit; with a shortage of men in North America to handle the “dirty work” during World War I, women had to take on jobs that required heavy-duty clothing. Later, Earhart would be inspired by these resilient women, adopting the pantsuit as her own uniform of choice when flying. Her signature cockpit look featured loose fitting trousers and a zipper top with big pockets. It wouldn’t be until after the war and the introduction of Coco Chanel’s streamlined suit that women began to wear the pant style as a fashionable option. Chanel was inspired by the new demands of women’s occupations, premiering the now classic “Chanel suit” in 1920. One of the first designers to think of haute couture in terms of comfort and mobility, Chanel used soft and flexible fabric to evoke a traditionally masculine aesthetic and was by. The Chanel Suit reimagined the male suit both feminine and professional. The only sexual element was the confidence that a woman was awarded when wearing the garment. Although the original design included a jacket and skirt as opposed to pants, Chanel’s suit was still considered revolutionary for it was the first professional clothing option for women; in light of husbands returning from war, the Chanel suit encouraged women to pursue their professional goals and promoted female independence in the modern world. The ideal model for the women’s suit was an explorer like Earhart who, in 1928 was offered the opportunity to become the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger.
It is commonly believed that Earhart flew this plane herself. Rather, she was invited on board to represent the liberated, yet still feminine, all-American girl— an educated, socially-gracious woman comfortable with modern technology. This achievement, however small, brought Earhart international attention. Earhart was soon asked to become the country’s first aviation editor for Cosmopolitan magazine, where she would continue writing opinion editorials for the next ten years. Writing for the magazine further established Earhart as an outspoken advocate for flying and women’s concerns.
Earhart’s next aviation accomplishment was establishing the All-Women’s Air Derby in 1929. To qualify, women had to meet the same standards as men, although they had to fly a low-speed aircraft deemed “appropriate” for women. Will Rogers, an iconic newspaper columnist present at the competition, quipped, “their female genes compelled each racer to take one last glance at her compact, along with a dab of powder on her nose and succinctly announced, ‘It looks like a powder puff derby to me!'” Even witness to the feats that aviatrix were accomplishing, men refused to believe that women could, or should, depart from their feminine and fashionable ways. While men were judged primarily for their achievements, women had to remain glamorous and fashionable while in pursuit of their goals. Earhart would prove that masculinity and fashion could be combined together.
If the young pilot had risen to fame through her unusual involvement in aviation, it was her successful transatlantic flight in 1924 that solidified her celebrity status and marked the transition from an accomplished pilot to a cultural icon. The swirl of publicity following her put her on magazine covers, radio broadcasts, lecture tours, and newspapers and advertising campaigns all across the country. But, Earhart was uninterested in being made to resemble the glamorous Hollywood celebrities that graced magazine covers, favoring instead her comfortable lace-up boots, worn trousers, and her iconic leather coat. She embraced her masculine style. With the addition of some subtle makeup for photos, she was transformed into an androgynous fashion icon comparable to the likes movie stars Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich, who would later appear in movies as aviatrix. Earhart’s fashion taste and gender representation has also been compared to female athletes of the era, such as Babe Didrikson and Helen Wills, who also embodied a masculine style.
Although never actually adopting the title of feminist, Earhart became an unconventional advocate for women’s rights. She took a brief break from flying in order to create a fashion line that, similar to Chanel’s, was more suitable for women in the workplace. Her fashion label, which ultimately failed, was named Amelia Earhart Fashions. Although she had good intentions by designing barrier breaking clothing, the fashion line was originally started with a personal motive to raise funds for Earhart’s future flights. Earhart was not simply a celebrity endorser who lent their name to clothing designs; she worked on the fashion line herself, employing the skills she had learned as a young girl in Kansas and completing her first samples on her own sewing machine and dress forms.
Earhart designed clothing that she wanted to wear, hoping that other women would be drawn to an apparel line that supplied comfortable and work-friendly clothing. Combining her two interests in aviation and design, her dresses featured belt buckles representing ball bearings, and her line also included a raincoat designed from silk parachute fabric with small propeller buttons. The items were washable and included 25 designs ranging from dresses to suits, blouses, trousers and hats. Earhart stressed the importance of accessibility of design and cost with her fashion line. She pioneered the idea of selling separates and wanted women to be comfortable in their clothing by providing the option to purchase a different size blouse and skirt. She was also cautious of the price of her items. Dresses cost $30, pants were less expensive at $16.75, while an entire tweed suit cost $55. Earhart recognized that she was launching her fashion line during the Depression (a factor that would eventually contribute to the fashion house’s demise), but this was one of the reasons why she launched it: “I hate ruffles, and at the price I could pay, that was all I could buy. So I decided to design clothes,” explained Earhart, recalling her own humble beginnings. Earhart’s design patterns were also available for purchase, proving an even less expensive way to obtain the fashionable and functional. The catchphrase of the fashion label encompassed Earhart’s two loves : bring the beauty of aviation closer to all women at prices that didn’t reach new altitudes. For many women, purchasing Earhart’s clothing line transported them to imaginary adventurous places, just like the designer herself, without the danger or terror of flying.
Taking the publicity she received for her flying accomplishments, and later for the popularity of her fashion line, Earhart used her platform to bring attention to the disparities between women and men not only in aviation but in other areas of employment. In interviews and lectures across the country, Earhart spoke out for women’s rights. Yet, Earhart never openly admitted to being a women’s activist and would occasionally preface her statements with “I’m not a feminist but…” Similarly, she never described her own fashion line as being forward-looking or barrier-breaking yet made use of the fashion platform to express her thoughts on equality. While on tour promoting her fashion line in Richmond, Virginia, Earhart delivered a typical speech:: “There is a distinct need for cooperation between men and women. Women should earn their own salt and men should do their part of the housework. They should help bring up the children too! Women have to do so many things that men have done just to prove that they can.” Earhart had grown up experiencing these inequalities first hand and although improvements to women’s rights were developing, not much had changed in terms of women’s prevalence in the male dominated workforce.
Earhart’s passions for defying gender norms placed her back in the cockpit for a final attempt to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. On July 2, 1937 contact was lost with Earhart’s plane and she was never heard from again. In 1939, Earhart was declared deceased in absentia at the age of 41. Earhart always used her multitude of accomplishments as proof of the resiliency and talent that women possessed and as inspiration for accomplishments that others could achieve in male dominated industries. “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others,” she declared in 1930. She was the epitome of what it meant to have agency as a woman in the 1930s and that her achievements could be accomplished by the average woman who received the right opportunity and encouragement. Although many associate Earhart’s name with her amazing flying feats, few take the time to understand the implications she had on the early feminist movement. Earhart’s name should stand for more than just flight accomplishments and fashion designs but as a symbol for the perseverance, confidence, bravery and adventurous spirit that she embodied.
Further reading
Fred Erisman, From Birdwomen to Skygirls: American Girls’ Aviation Stories. Fort Worth, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2009.
Mary Hall, Amelia Earhart’s Fashion Line: Found at Last,” The Huffington Post. March 18, 2010.
Karla Jay, No Bumps, No Excrescences: Amelia Earhart’s Failed Flight into Fashions,” in On Fashion. Eds. Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994: 76-94
Susan Ware, Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993.