1937 Convertible Flying Skirt / Overall
by Edith Foltz, Pilot
About the Patent
- NAMEEdith Foltz
- PATENTUS2080814A
- DATEMay 18, 1937
- LOCATIONPatented in the United States – inventor residing in Los Angeles
- INVENTION“Skirt”
- THEMEMoving [more about our themes]
About the Inventor
Edith Foltz was a renowned aviatrix who learned to fly after moving to Oregon from Texas. A contemporary of Amelia Earhart, Foltz was an accomplished record breaker, cross country flyer, navigator and transport pilot. It was against the background of these activities that she developed and patented her innovative clothing design. She was also a founding member of the Ninety-Nines, a supportive organisation of early women pilots that still exists today. During WWII she was one of a small number of American women pilots who were selected to fly with the British Air Transport Auxiliary.
About the Invention
PROBLEM
Even accomplished pilots felt pressure to conform to social norms around the wearing of what was seen as men’s style trousers and overalls. Flying an aeroplane required utilitarian clothing, which kept pilots warm and did not catch on critical levers and instruments. However, skirts were considered more appropriate when women pilots re-entered society on the ground as well as looking presentable when at the destination.
SOLUTION
Foltz invented a skirt that could be worn over trousers, and when drawn up and over the shoulders of the wearer it formed a blouse (connected to trousers hidden underneath). Together it formed an all-in-one overall which didn’t get in the way when getting in and out of a plane (or when riding a horse, or camping, hiking or when playing sports etc) and the skirt was suitable for street wear.
Open Access Patent Document
See the complete US patent.
“I like to get into my plane and go places. But I don’t like to clamber around planes in dresses and I don’t like to stride down the street in trousers.”
— Edith Foltz, inventor
Foltz’s Invention in the Press
Speculatively Sewing Edith Foltz’s Invention
Learn more about speculative sewing here
Foltz’s convertible flying skirt/overall was challenging to make and took a number of iterations to work out the design and achieve a good result. We started with a basic jodhpur pattern and tried to add a skirt onto it. The skirt (or overgarment) needed to be custom made and was a little harder to construct because it had so many unique parts to it, being both a blouse and a skirt.
The overgarment is two-in-one: a narrow below-knee length skirt and all-in-one overall. The skirt unzips at the both sides and is folded up to the shoulders, where it is fastened to create a stylish blouse. The hem becomes a collar and useful pockets appear in the blouse and trousers. In this way the skirt becomes a pair of overalls, useful for flying planes and other activities.
One of our first challenges emerged via the use of calico. While this material is very useful for most toiles, this garment needed to drape well, otherwise it looked like a badly made box. For another version of the design we used dead-stock light wool fabric. This hung better on the body, so we could see how the box pleat at the hem of the skirt impressively transformed into a collar when the skirt is lifted to the shoulders. We could also better understand how the blouse/skirt was cut into the trousers, a few inches below the waistband.
The zippers on the sides of the skirt were also fascinating. They only had to be unzipped a third to a half of the way to lift the skirt to the shoulders. Two sets of two fasteners on the hem of the skirt, front and back, are joined at the shoulders to create the neck of the garment. The partially opened zipped sides then create the armholes.
One of the most interesting things we learn through speculatively sewing these patented inventions concerns speed. At no point does Foltz say this would be a speedy conversion. And it isn’t. Although, with practice, the wearer gets quicker at the transformation from skirt into blouse and trousers, unzipping the skirt and affixing neck fasteners. Making and wearing the garment revealed to us that the more speedy part of the garment’s conversion was in the return of the flying overall back into the form of a conventional skirt. This was likely the more important shift, back to normative wear, and thus critical that it was quicker.
You can read our open access journal article about speculative sewing here.
Foltz’s Invention in POP’s Short Film
POP invited The Adventure Syndicate (TAS) and Mòr Diversity to try out a collection of reconstructed convertible, reversible, multiple and hidden sports- and active-wear in the Scottish hills. We made 5 customised costumes spanning from the 1890s to 1940s – including Foltz’s convertible cycling skirt.
Together we went running, jumping, hiking, flying, cycling, swimming, hunting, riding horses, catching trains, driving cars, climbing up and rolling down hills, and otherwise putting these amazing costumes through their paces. We made a short film (20 mins) called “Women On The Move”, directed by Alice Lemkes of TAS, which is currently being shown at international women’s and sports/adventure film festivals.
The initial launch of the film on International Women’s Day 2022 coincided with the publishing of a journal article in the Sociological Review which goes into all of this in more depth. See below for more links to events and research.
More Research Relating to Foltz’s Invention
Below is a selection of research activities relating to Foltz’s invention and activewear more generally. Click through to learn more.
The Speculative Sewing Inventory is part of the Politics Of Patents project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant No: 819458. Politics Of Patents is hosted by Goldsmiths College, University of London.
