On Veteran's Day ... and Baroness Raymonde de Laroche, Part 2

Jacqueline Cochran, in uniform, 1943. Photo: Airbus.com

We here in the U.S. are set to celebrate Veteran's Day tomorrow, October 11th. Of course, we are not the only country paying tribute to war veterans, as France is currently marking the centenary of the end of WWI.

I thought this might be a fitting time to post the second part of my article on the Baroness Raymonde de Laroche, who was a veteran of WWI: she settled for driving an ambulance on the front, after the French government turned down her request to fly for France. The Baroness gave so much to that particular war effort, and of course she was not alone, although I am uncertain whether France formally recognizes the sacrifice of the women who served in non-traditional capacities.

Of course, this non-recognition of female war contributions continued (at least in the U.S.) through WWII. Notably, Jacqueline Cochran, the head of the WASP - Women's Air Force Service Pilots - which trained many women to fly during WWII, fought hard to get female pilots the official federal government recognition their service and sacrifice so richly deserved. Unfortunately, Cochran was unsuccessful in that attempt, and other attempts since then have also failed. 

So, to honor all veterans' service - both official and non-official - here is the second and final part of the amazing story of the first woman of flight, Baroness Raymonde de Laroche. (If you missed the first part, feel free to access it here.)

Raymonde de Laroche, the Baroness of Flight

The Baroness Raymond de Laroche. Photo
from Airbus.

When we last left the Baroness, she had just successfully competed with male pilots in the first five days at the second Grande Semaine d’Aviation in July, 1910 in Reims, France. On the sixth day, however, she suffered an incredible accident that saw her almost die on the competitive field.

Elise remained grounded for six months after the Reims accident as she recuperated, returning to the airfield on crutches in January 1911. Throughout 1911, she resumed flying and successively traded up to better planes until she was piloting a Farman biplane. By this point, she and Charles were living together. Voisin had left the family plane business to manage a group of the best pilots of the day, including Roland Garros (for whom the French Open tennis match was named).

In the same year, dangerous machines caused another tragedy for de LaRoche even when her feet remained squarely planted on the ground. She and Charles were driving near Lyons when they collided with another car. Charles died at the scene, and Elise sustained serious injuries.

The Baroness turning to flying (in new-to-her plane manufacturers) for solace, and it played an eventful role for her in 1912. Although de Laroche had been working her way through a series of different planes other than Voisins prior to Charles’ death, there was no more relationship with either the Voisin brothers or their planes since Gabriel, Charles’ surviving brother, blamed her for the accident.  Additionally, a French company, Office d’Aviation, was supposed to provide her with a plane as well as secure her flying engagements, which it did not do. As a result, she brought a breach of contract claim against the company, and after initially losing in a lower tribunal, won a 10,000 francs court judgment in the Fourth Chamber.

Then, in 1913, the year in which one of her Belgian contemporaries, Hélène Dutrieu, announced her retirement from flying, the Baroness won the coveted European Femina Cup—and the hefty prize money that came with it—for setting a flight record by a female pilot. She also seemed to fully recover from her loss of Charles Voisin and married Jacques Vial in the same year. Had it not been for the outbreak of WWI, when all non-military flight came to a halt, she would have continued, unabated, to fly.

However, when WWI broke out in 1914, civilian flying – including that of the Baroness - came to a complete stop. Elise actually wanted to fly for France, but had to settle for driving an automobile instead. She survived the war, but these years greatly impacted the rest of her life: the government requisitioned her plane to fight the war, her husband Vial died on the battlefield, and the Spanish flu killed her son.

In the summer of 1919, after setting (for a brief time) a women’s altitude record, de Laroche visited the airfield at Le Crotoy Somme, where she was offered a ride in a new Caudron airplane. Elise was in the process of reimagining a new “first” role for herself- that of test pilot. No other woman had, to that point, qualified for that type of pilot work. At just 33 years old, however, Elise died on that flight, along with the pilot. Flight’s obituary notice on July 24, 1919, approvingly documented her many achievements and closed with a nod to one of many controversies at the time: “A few weeks ago she took a machine up to a height of 4,900 metres (16,170 ft.) but the French Club refused to recognize ‘women’s records,’ a decision which has caused some discussion across the Channel.” Local flying clubs had forbid women to compete with men, but since the FAI was the official international record-keeping body, Elise and all other women had used it as a way to crack the gender flight ceiling.

It is clear that de Laroche loved flying and remained dedicated to it despite the obvious and the all-to-often fatal risks involved in early aviation. The Baroness, in her own words, hauntingly alluded to both her dedication and the associated risk, when she spoke to reporters after she earned her pilot’s license in 1910: “Most of us spread the perils of a lifetime over a number of years. Others may pack them into a matter of only a few hours. In any case, whatever is to happen will happen. It may well be that I shall tempt fate once too often. Who knows? But it is to the air that I have dedicated myself, and I fly always without the slightest fear.”

Further Reading:

Books:

Gibson, Karen Bush. Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2013

Lavoie, Denise. Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace: Crochet and Knit Designs Inspired by the Early Females of Flight Including Bessie Coleman and Harriet Quimby. Seattle: Tough as Lace Publishing, 2015.

Lebow, Eileen F. Before Amelia. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Inc., 2002.

Lieberg, Owen S. The First Air Race: The International Competition at Reims, 1909. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1974.

Marck, Bernard. Women Aviators: From Amelia Earhart to Sally Ride, Making History in Air and Space. Paris: Flammariion, 2009.

Pawlak, Debra Ann. “The Baroness of Flight,” Aviation History (July 1, 2008).

Villard, Henry Serrano, and William M. Allen, Jr. Looping the Loop: Posters of Flight. Carlsbad, California: Kales Press, 2000.

Voisin, Gabriel. Men, Women, and 10,000 Kites. London: Putnam, 1963

Magazine articles:

Air Trails, July, 1953 – “The Brave Baroness – First Licensed Ladybird,” Harry Harper, pp. 19-21, 56, 58.

Flying, March, 1957 – “The Intrepid First Lade of Flight,” Harry Harper, pp. 34, 84-85.

Icare, Revue de l’Aviation, edited by SNPL France ALPA (Association des Pilotes de Ligne), December 2012, vol.

            no. 223 – Courses et Meetings Aeriens de la Belle Epoque (1909-1914) – Vol. 2: 1910, pp 12-12, 18, 86-

            88, 95 (a French language publication).

Knitting Traditions, Fall, 2017 - "Aviation's Baroness: Elise Raymonde de Laroche," Denise Lavoie, pp. 22-27.

Marking Labor Day

Nothing gratuitous about this photo: the underlying blanket is a
project that was the subject of my previous sole post dealing with
 Labor Day in 2012! It has stood up well to life with George Bailey.

It is amazing to me that I have only written a singular blog post concerning Labor Day in the United States. That seems almost impossible to me, and I expect that my tagging and keyword skills are failing me at the moment. Nevertheless, I aim to rectify this gross oversight.

Labor Day, celebrated the first Monday in September every year in the United States, became an official holiday by an act of Congress in 1884. Its origins come from the late 19th century labor movement in this country. (For more on the history of the holiday, check out more facts here on the U.S. Department of Labor website.) The holiday's main aim is to celebrate the achievements of the American worker. I do note that in many countries internationally, labor is celebrated on May 1st.

This holiday is particularly poignant this year: not only with the recent deaths of Senator John McCain (a former POW whose service to this country underscores the freedoms and past achievements Americans have worked so hard to achieve and maintain) and singing icon Aretha Franklin (a true, clear voice during the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 60s), America is feeling its grief. It is almost as if we collectively needed this long weekend to take an opportunity to just breathe.

Additionally, this is a time when the American worker is also feeling the pinch and sting of  economic stagnation resulting from current federal domestic legislative policy. For a brief, yet succinct, overview you really should listen to this NPR interview. 

For my part, I continue to attempt to build a solid designing track record as well as writing record marking historical female achievement. It may, perhaps, be a small drop in an underrepresented bucket, but they are drops of which I am nonetheless truly proud. My articles in the past two issues of Knitting Traditions Magazine represent some of my most prized research and writing efforts, and I would urge everyone to pick up copies of both editions and read them together. Back to back, these issues present quite a unique snapshot of what animated a fair amount of women in the second half of the 19th, as well as the turn of the 20th, centuries. Of course, it goes without saying that my self-published title Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace, with its stories of early 20th century female pilots, rounds out an incredibly exciting time in women's history. The marking of female achievement in traditional as well as non-traditional female roles, as well as the current surge in U.S. women's political activity, leaves me in no doubt that this time in 21st century history will be remembered as an exciting and active one for women in all spheres.

Happy Labor Day to everyone who celebrates it today!

A New Article

I am so thrilled to finally be able to announce another of the projects I worked on earlier this year - my article on Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli for the latest edition of Knitting Traditions Magazine (the link will take you to the Interweave order page for both the digital and print editions).

This piece, while spanning most of their careers, focuses mainly on their early, formative years. It is a fascinating study - these two were far more alike than, I expect, each was ever willing to admit. Chanel always sniffed at hearing Schiaparelli's name (pronounced Skaparelli with a k sound) because, in my estimation based on comments attributed to Chanel, she thought Elsa an inferior seamstress/dressmaker. Of course, Chanel's sewing skills were incomparable, given where and how she received her own training, so Coco could indeed have accurately assessed Schiaparelli's technical skills. 

However, what Chanel never really gave Schiap (a shortened version that was always used) credit for was her incredible artistic talent. Both women had a radically different view of fashion during their time - diametrically opposed to each other as well as to the styles of the day. This article delves into the genesis of exactly where and how the seeds of each of their respective styles were planted. 

You will need to pick up a copy of the magazine in order to read my take on these two prodigious fashion talents. You will, additionally, be rewarded with other great articles as well as some seriously gorgeous designs. Knitting Traditions is always a feast for the eyes as well as the creative soul, so I would urge you to check out this year's edition. (And, for the record, I have an article in last year's edition as well on the first female to receive a pilot's license, so if you're into reading about kick-ass women ... )

Receiving a Little Piece of History

A copy of correspondence in de Laroche's own
handwriting circa November, 1912, along with
the beginnings of the front of my own Aviatrix
Pullover, my design included with the article
about the Baroness in the 2017 issue
of Knitting Traditions Magazine.

Yesterday was a good mail day. As you may (or may not!) know, I authored an article in the recent Knitting Traditions Magazine about the first lady of licensed flight, Raymonde de Laroche. This in-depth piece is an extension of my overview of her story in the self-published book, Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. 

The process of writing the Knitting Traditions article was a real treat, as it allowed me to dig deeper into the Baroness's story. I wanted, however, to unearth bits of history in her own voice which, almost two centuries after her death, with an ocean separating me from much of the scant source material, made that somewhat of a challenge.

Nevertheless, I managed to uncover articles not found in my original research for the book, and I continue to receive copies of research materials from sources not local to me. Much of those research results can be read in today's blog entry over at the Interweave Knitting blog entitled "Take Flight with Baroness Elise Raymonde de Laroche and Knitting Traditions."

However, yesterday's mail packet from The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum was a real gem, as it contained a copy of the Baroness's own correspondence from a Reims hotel dated November 19, 1912. Not incredibly long, yet in it she wrote of her eye on the Coupe Femina as a distraction from her sadness at the death of Charles Voisin. The Baroness would win the coveted European racing competition the very next year. Seeing her handwritten note, complete with signature, made her grief and flying focus all the more palpable.

I hope everyone will read the Interweave blog entry as well as the article in Knitting Traditions. Of course, making your own version of the pullover would be great, too, during Slow Fashion October. Just sayin'.

 

 

Slow Fashion October: Take 3

Ladies and gentlemen, start your maker engines, because it is once again time for that month dedicated to all things wardrobe which are “small-batch, handmade, second-hand, well-loved, long-worn, and known-origins.” The brain behind Slow Fashion October is Karen Templer of Fringe Supply Co. and karentempler.com, and much thanks to her for once again spearheading this mammoth 31 day social media event.

I plan on posting blog entries throughout the entire month here on the blog, definitely in response to each weekly prompt, and perhaps beyond and/or ancillary to them. This initial week's prompt is the "who" - obvious and not so much. Obvious in the introducing of oneself; not so much in the who/what has influenced my personal clothing path.

To answer the obvious, I am a handknit- and crochet-wear designer. I’ve been at this now for six amazing years; I’ve self-published a first book of designs based on the early females of flight – Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. I currently continue designing and publishing utilizing that same inspirational material with the Aviatrix Pullover (and an accompanying in-depth article on Raymonde de Laroche) in the current Knitting Traditions Magazine, as well as my own fall mini-remix of knit designs in the Flying Sticks remix e-book.

As anyone who has read this interview or this blog post (from last year's Slow Fashion October) or the acknowledgement to Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace knows, my initial wardrobe influencer was my maternal grandmother. Her clothes shopping trips, and their related purchase reveals to an audience of one (yours truly) when I was barely a tween, left an indelible mark in my fashion memory. The fact that she was a New England textile worker (which I learned only many years later) provides such context to those reveals, in which she would tell me the alterations she planned for each piece. My grandmother used her sewing machine regularly well into her mid-70s, and while I had no desire to use the sewing machine, her willingness to share what she had in mind absolutely had an impact on my approach to clothes and wardrobe.

Just a few of the many Vogue
Knitting editions in my
personal library

Of course, initially I had no desire to alter my off-the-rack purchases beyond a hemming here and there. However, handmade has had a long, slow simmer on my clothes’ making back burner, as well-thumbed and much traveled issues of Vogue Knitting, purchased when originally published over the almost last 30 years, can attest.

It wasn’t until the middle to late 2000s, coinciding with my time instructing ethics to design school students, that I started to really focus on handmade and DIY with some semblance of mindfulness. The back and forth with students really helped to bring my own thoughts into focus. It doesn’t hurt that I also have a fair amount of curiosity about how things work, some natural mechanical and spatial abilities, and a deep love of color. I am currently a huge follower of all things Sonya Philip. We may have very different styles, but the breadth and depth of her handmade wardrobe is so damn impressive, not to mention her awesome way with color and pattern. Katrina Rodabaugh and Tom Holland have made me reimagine mending across all the textiles of my world (and found via Slow Fashion October Take 1); designer Veronik Avery remains a design and pattern grading inspiration. Oh, and let me not forget Norah Gaughan - because in addition to the designs, she's an amazing human being.

I do have wardrobe goals for the month, and they feature me actually completing several handmade pieces, a few of which are part of my Ravelry group’s maker event which started in September and ends mid-October. I have two pullovers, a cardigan, and a cover-up in various stages of completion that, if I can manage to get them off my making plate, are perfect fall weather wearables. I also have a few long-overdue model thank-you’s to complete; my regularly scheduled original design life continues behind the scenes.

It’s a good thing I like this hand-making stuff.

 

 

And Then There Was a New Knit Design

Photography (c) Interweave, used
with kind permission

It is a wonderful day when I get to announce a new, published design. It never gets old, and that's a good thing.

My latest design, The Aviatrix Pullover, has special meaning: it's inspired by Baroness Elise Raymonde de Laroche, one of the female pilots profiled in Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. Worked up in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Chunky in the fantastically industrial Patterson Park colorway, this super easy pullover earns its wings in the details: the seed stitch edging all around, as well as the wonderful grommet insert at front hem. The design's complete lack of lace, dropped shoulders and weightier yarn echo a trademark sweater worn by the Baroness during many of her flights. Of course, this design is updated for 21st century appeal with a casual v-neck and a closer fit. Chunky yarn and big needles means you can whip one of these up for yourself in plenty of time to show it off at Rhinebeck this year. What's not to love about that?

Photography (c) Interweave, used with kind permission

Additionally, I also penned an in-depth article on the Baroness that is included with the design in the Fall 2017 edition of Knitting Traditions. It was a real treat to be able to get into details of her flying career that I could not in LLGG (time and space are issues no matter the type of publication). It was a real treat to interact with this material again after some elapsed time since LLGG's publishing. Because Knitting Traditions is an Interweave publication, they had access to certain archival photos that I did not as a sole author; as a result, the article's details really come alive. I would urge everyone interested in this subject matter (as well as the Victorian era generally), to pick up a copy of the 2017 Knitting Traditions issue. There's a wealth of really good reading that will keep you engaged as you work through one (or several) of the included 18 designs.