|
Turns out
Amelia Earhart
was at the height of fashion with her aviation ensemble.
Her
leather jacket — cuffed at the waist and sleeves to
protect her from the cold air at high altitudes — was
practical, but she wore it with aplomb.
We've
seen many a photo of her, often wearing a jacket over a
shirt buttoned low and a scarf tied jauntily around her
neck.
It's a
look we're sure to see again soon when
Hilary Swank
portrays the "First Lady of the Air" in the
new "Amelia" movie opening this week.
So how
would Earhart dress today?
Bomber
jacket over a dress to the office? Over leggings to the
club? Over a ruffled blouse instead of a menswear shirt?
Would it
even be leather? Today's bomber jackets come in silk,
faux fur, nylon, polar fleece and even sequins. She'd
have so many choices.
"When
women wore them in the past, they would generally be
their boyfriend's jacket, or their dad's or their
granddad's. It was essentially a hand-me-down,"
says
Macy's
spokesman
Kamal Bosamia
in
Chicago
.
"It
was a very comfy piece of their wardrobe, and they
adopted it as their own. Now what we're seeing is that
it's not just a comfort piece. It is a statement piece,
especially this season."
Time to
unleash your inner aviatrix.
Military
roots:
The
bomber, aka flight, jacket is no lowly piece of
outerwear. Heads of state have been known to present
them as gifts.
In 2007,
at the end of
Gordon Brown's
visit to Camp David, President
George W. Bush
gave the British prime minister a brown leather bomber
jacket wrapped in gold paper and bearing the
presidential seal.
That's a
far cry from the jacket's military roots, which by most
accounts trace back to World War I, when British bomber
pilots sported long leather flying coats. The leather
helped shield the pilots, who flew in planes with open
cockpits, from the elements.
American
forces quickly adopted the warm, practical outerwear. In
1931, the
U.S. Army Air Corps
issued the design that remains popular today —
waist-length with front zippers, high wrapped collars,
wind flaps on the front and tight cuffs on the sleeves.
There was
something a little edgy, dangerous and adventurous about
the jacket and the people who wore them. And it didn't
take long for the fashion industry to steal the look for
the everyman and everywoman.
Flights
of fancy:
Freelance
stylist
Cristy Guy
owns a bomber jacket that she likes to pair with blue
jeans and high heels.
"I
think that, especially when we translate it into women's
wear, it's very sexy," says Guy, who lives in
Mission, Kan.
"And
the leather adds a little bit of roughness so that when
you wear it with very feminine pieces, it just has a
really cool look about it. And it doesn't ever really go
out of style.
"They're
made so many different ways now. You just have to make
sure that it's more up-to-date."
Putting
the oomph in the style this year are jackets with
interesting pocket details — patch pockets, flap
pockets with buttons — and edgy, exposed zippers, says
Bosamia with
Macy's
.
Cropped
bombers are also hot.
"The
cropped ones generally lend themselves to a younger
audience," he says. "So now the bomber jacket
really can be for everyone."
Guy, who
went to the same fashion school in
Los Angeles
where this season's "Project Runway" was
filmed, recently styled an Earhart-inspired photo shoot.
In one
photo, she placed the model in an exaggerated version of
a bomber jacket made of silver leather and paired it
with a big skirt of many ruffled layers. A metal corset
belt and big, chunky jewelry gave it a "very Vogue,
very conceptual" look, she says.
For a
more everyday look, "a nice bomber with some silky
trousers and a light chiffon top would be too
cute," she says. "It's a good contrast —
you're not all rough, but you're not all feminine,
either. I just love to use the rough with the
soft."
With
jeans, she would put a bomber over a long tank made of a
non bulky material such as jersey and finish the look
with lots of dangly necklaces.
A scarf
around the neck, ala Earhart's signature look, would
work today as well, Guy says.
"The
funny thing is that I know in her era she was a woman in
a man's world, so she dressed a little more baggy, a
little more masculine," she says.
"But
if you really look at her, she's just super gorgeous and
has such a great body. It would have been interesting to
see her in some more fitted clothes."
Or
perhaps that bomber jacket of silver leather with a
cancan skirt?
BOMBERS
AWAY!
Make a
classic bomber jacket work for you with these tips from
local stylist
Cristy Guy
(www.cristyguy.com).
Look for
a jacket with design details. Updated hardware and
cropped styles are modern touches.
Choose a
fitted rather than boxy fit. "Something more
tailored is way more flattering than boxy." A
tailored fit "brings the feminine edge back to a
manly jacket."
Make sure
the sleeves fit. "You need to watch the sleeves so
they're not too long. They need to fit right, or they
look bulky."
Finish
the look with sunglasses. "You have to have some
big shades, or goggle-like shades. They don't have to be
aviators."
BIG-SCREEN
BOMBERS
Two
portrayals of
Amelia Earhart
in movies this year put the bomber jacket on the fashion
frontburner.
Amy Adams
made a leather bomber look hot when she played Earhart
in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the
Smithsonian."
Hilary Swank
will don leather, too, in the title role of
"Amelia," opening
Oct. 23
. Paired with a dress, a bomber jacket can fly from the
office to happy hour. Jacket,
$160
,
Kohl's
; dress,
$140
,
Macy's
; boots,
$129
,
Macy's
. (Hair and makeup by
Meredith Ware
,
Skyline Downtown Salon
. Shot on location at the
Airline History Museum
,
Wheeler Downtown Airport
.)
There's
nothing manly about a bomber jacket with a leopard-print
lining worn over an embellished tank top. And don't
forget the rockin' shades. Faux leather jacket,
$58
,
Nordstrom
; tank top,
$34
,
Nordstrom
. (Hair and makeup by
Meredith Ware
,
Skyline Downtown Salon
. Shot on location at the
Airline History Museum
,
Wheeler Downtown Airport
.)
|
