Women's Pilot Shirts

Someone recently e-mailed me to ask for a source of women's pilot shirts, but she didn't get my reply because, according to the bounce I received, "The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content." So I'll have to post it here.

Pilot uniform shirts are generally pretty well designed. They have epaulettes on the shoulders to hold our insignia. They have big pockets in the front, large enough to hold a Canadian passport and licence wallet on one side, and an oversized pair of aviator Ray Bans on the other side. There's also a little separator thingy on the left pocket, that holds a pen effectively. Or a tire pressure gauge, but then there's no room for your pen.

Men's shirt sizes are based on neck size. Women, in case you live in a monestary and have never seen one, tend to be smaller than men, and even big women tend to have smaller necks than men. If you're a small woman, you have to special order shirts to get a small enough neck size, and some manufacturers don't cater to pencil-necked pilots, so you're out of luck. The smallest men's size available is usually a little loose around the neck on me, but no one, especially me, has ever complained about the gap between my tie and my throat, so I get away with it.

I have experimented with buying women's shirts. The first one I ordered was the Van Heusen Aviator did have a neck that fit me, but it had a little cute collar that looked dumb with my tie. It also had itty bitty front pockets. Completely useless front pockets. No room for sunglasses. I don't even think there was space for a pen. Another shirt, I gave away, so can't look up the type. It was too short from neck to tails, so it came untucked while sitting in or crawling underneath aircraft. Also the manufacturer believed that women have very short arms. And all women's shirts button the wrong way. I suppose it's the right way for women's shirts, but it's the wrong way for the shirts I'm used to.

I wear men's shirts.

If you are a short-armed, short-waisted woman who doesn't keep her sunglasses in her breast pocket, try Tally Ho (service was slow, but they sent me the stuff eventually and apologized for being slow). If anyone else has shirt vendor suggestions, please brave the captcha and leave a comment.

And if your ISP has paranoid restrictions on incoming e-mail, whitelist a person who is using a free web e-mail account, if you want to receive a reply.