As aviation and parachuting developed during WWI the need for garments designed to insulate the body from the cold of high altitudes and minimize risk of covering important handles and grips quickly became apparent.Jumpsuits were first introduced around 1913 by the H.D. Lee Mercantile Company and primarily sold as military uniforms or flightsuits during WWI. Other industries soon caught on to the one-piece coverall garment and soon they were showing up everywhere from farms to factories.
From the first trans-Atlantic flight to man’s first steps on the moon, the one-piece garment provided the protection to make bold moves. Early on, the one-piece design became associated with emerging freedoms and was adopted as the ideal garment by futuristic-thinking early modernist artists and designers. Its egalitarian association with the common worker and its unisex uses imbued the jumpsuit with utopian ideals. It is often prophesied as the universal uniform of the future and is an iconic costume for science-fiction movie characters. By the late 1960s, the jumpsuit trickled up through society into high fashion.
1900s
Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker from Columbus, Ohio in fur lined flightsuit standing next to a plane he flew during World War I in France, ca. 1914-1918.
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