In the Autumn/Winter 2012-13 collections there were references to films, movie icons and architecture, but very rarely designers named an inspiring female icon borrowed from other backgrounds rather than just cinema or fashion. Yet there have been (and there are!) inspiring female figure in the worlds of art, literature or science that may provide interesting ideas.
Design duo Ling Liu and Dawei Sun, who after working at Balenciaga, John Galliano and Yves Saint Laurent are the current creative directors at Cacharel, moved for example from Amelia Earhart, the first female aviator.
Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. In 1928, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. "Slim" Gordon in a trip across the Atlantic. This was a landmark flight since three women had died within the year in the same attempt.
When the crew returned to the United States they were greeted with a parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House (image 2 and 3 in this post chronicle this event).
In 1932, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris, but because of strong winds and icy conditions she landed in Ireland. Earhart beame the first woman to cross solo the Atlantic, and in the years that followed she broke further records, disappearing in 1937 during a flight around the world.
Earhart may not have been a desperately new idea for a fashion collection, even though
Ling Liu and Dawei Sun tried to adapt her style as best as they could to a modern woman's wardrobe.
Everything started with an Art Deco mood that was injected in the ‘20s coats and hats and that was also mixed to Bauhaus inspirations. The colour palette mainly revolved around crimson red or yolk yellow (mainly used for the accessories) matched with sky blue.
Yellow must have been another reference to Earhart: her first plane, a second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane "Canary," and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.
Sky blue also came back in the prism prints inspired by ice crystals seen through the windows of a plane.
Earhart’s style was evoked mainly by the flying caps and gloves, the tailored jumpsuits and zipped aviator jackets often matched with palazzo pants, and while Cacharel trademark flower prints and some nice geometrical zigzagging knits provided some alternatives, you felt that somehow the collection would have been much better if romance, girly dresses with matching hairclips and white tights had been left behind in favour of stronger masculine notes, to maybe emphasise a little bit more Earhart's challenges.
In her life Earhart went against many prejudices and financial obstacles to make her dreams come true and this message is essentially lacking in many things aimed at women, including clothes (look at the content of the mainstream fashion magazines...).
After her 1932 flight, Earhart felt it had proved that men and women were equal in "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness and willpower."
In a letter she wrote to her husband in case a dangerous flight proved to be her last, Earhart said: "(...) I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."
Earhart's biography says that she also kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly male-oriented fields, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.
Tomorrow is International Women's Day and, while remembering Earhart's achievements and words (rather than just her style...) would be very apt, maybe starting to work on our own file about successful women in our society (and above all, in different fields and professions, science included) wouldn't be such a bad idea.
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