FASHION HISTORY
Ta k e
Flight
The ubiquitous bomber jacket
has never lost its cool factor.
By MAROUCHKA FRANJULIEN
STYLE TIP
Pair this classic piece with billowy
trousers for a casual daytime
silhouette. For nighttime, channel
your inner Parisian and go for
leather shorts and sheer tights.
Not sure what to wear up top?
Look for a fitted nylon-blend
turtleneck to wear under your
favourite sweater or with
a bomber on its own.
THE BOMBER IN 2019
Varying iterations of the flight jacket appeared on the
fall 2019 runways—caped at Prada, in buttery-soft
leather at Celine and biker-chic at Louis Vuit ton.
GOING
MAINSTREAM
Twenty years after Amelia
Earhart donned a leather
bomber for her 1930s-era
world travels, movie stars like
Marilyn Monroe and James
Dean added to its blossoming
style clout. Because the
bomber was the first military
jacket to cross into “civilian”
territory, its popularity grew
through the 1960s, and by the
1980s, the jacket had been
embraced by everyone from
punk rockers to mods to the
gay community.
THE GENESIS
The bomber, or flight jacket, first appeared back in
1917, when the fur-lined leather iteration was created
to protect U.S. Air Force pilots from the elements.
In peacetime, new jackets appeared, in lighter- and
heavier-weight versions, and in the 1950s, the now
iconic MA-1 established what the modern bomber
could be. The leather was replaced by nylon, the
collar was made from a stretchy mesh and an
orange lining was added to make the jacket more
visible should there be a need for a rescue mission.
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