She was always something of a tomboy, with her shock of cropped hair, mannish shirts and trousers — and, of course, those leather flight jackets.

"She was seldom happier," her husband once observed, "than when sprawled on the concrete tarmac ... grimy as a grease monkey."

If anyone could make grease monkeys glamorous, it was Amelia Earhart, the famed aviator who, in 1932, became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. But she made headlines for more than feats of flying. She appeared in fashion spreads, was pals with Eleanor Roosevelt, even hawked her own line of clothing — and (unlike today's celebs with fashion labels) actually made it with her own sewing machine.

"She was very aware of the power of publicity ... and understood that flying alone wasn't going to keep her in the public eye," notes Dorothy S. Cochrane, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

A new film about Earhart, starring Hilary Swank, hit theaters last weekend, and designers and store owners were ready. Earhart's iconic flight jacket, along with aviation-inspired accessories, seems to be everywhere, including Bloomingdale's in Manhattan, where the film's costumes are on display.

Clearly, Earhart's legend lies not just in her mysterious disappearance, but in her stylish presence, too.

The plane truth about flight jackets'Aviators had various leather coats during their careers," notes Dorothy S. Cochrane, a curator for the Smithsonian Institution, which has this genuine Earhart coat on display.

"It was really cold in those planes, so most flying before World War II was done in three-quarter-length jackets," says Jacky Clyman, co-owner of Cockpit USA, which makes replicas of vintage flight gear and sponsors the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport in Farmingdale.

World War II fighter planes had smaller cockpits, so jackets became cropped. "It wasn't a fashion statement," Clyman says. Long coats would "bunch up and prevent you from flying the plane correctly."