Aviatrix Sweaters (American, 1930s), designed by Lucille M. Dingley (1911-2003). ASU FIDM Museum.
These 1930s sweaters bear labels indicating Lucille M. Dingley designed them “exclusively for women flyers.” Dingley knew a thing or two about flying: she was a U.S. Women Army Service Pilot (WASP) during World War II, the manager of the Auburn-Lewiston Airfield in Maine, and a member of the Ninety-Nines, the Sportsman Pilot Association, and the Whirley Girl Helicopter Club. It’s unknown if Dingley designed the patterns or simply lent her name to the fashions, but the flight diagrams rendered on these hand-knit tops were lifted directly from the aeronautic textbooks a whole new generation of adventurous women were studying in flight schools
