Cited: Business Wire
That’s the mini-skirted airline stewardesses of the 60s, fashion and airlines have enjoyed a close relationship right up to this year’s Burberry aviator jacket that can be seen on the catwalk at Fashion Week.
Over the last decade a trend has also emerged for airlines to commission some of the world’s top fashion designers to create stylish cabin crew uniforms. But how effective has this been? Flights comparison site Skyscanner.net reviews the fashion-forward airlines and discovers who its users think is the most stylish airline.
Fashion heavyweight Italy was one of the first countries to enlist a fashion designer to design uniforms for its national carrier. In the early 1990s Giorgio Armani designed uniforms for Alitalia, to much critical acclaim. However today’s uniform, designed by Mondrian from the Nadinin Group, gets just 8% of the votes in Skyscanner’s poll of the most stylish airlines.
Welsh designer Julien MacDonald took his needle and thread to BA’s uniform in 2004 in an effort to stop cabin crew looking like “someone’s old granny”. A respectable 15% of
Skyscanner users think that BA, which sponsors London Fashion Week, should take the top title in the style poll.
Air France commissioned Christian Lacroix to design a whole wardrobe of items for cabin crew in 2005. Lacroix designs for an impressive list of celebrities, and Skyscanner users are suitably impressed, with 17% voting Air France’s uniforms as the most stylish.
LA-based couture designer Richard Tyler debuted his designs for Delta Airlines at New York Fashion Week in 2005, with an attention-grabbing red dress. However the dresses have not grabbed Skyscanner users’ attention, with a measly 5% voting Delta to be the most stylish.
Spanish designer Adolfo Dominguez, whose dresses are coveted by Gwyneth Paltrow, introduced coloured shirts to denote ranking when he designed the Iberia uniforms. Dominguez may be a celebrity favourite but the poll results show he is not a Skyscanner favourite, taking just 9% of the votes.
While many other airlines, including Jet Aiways and Lufthansa, have also used top fashion designers to create their uniforms, the appeal seems to be limited, according to the results of the poll. The airline that Skyscanner users actually deemed to be the most stylish is Qatar Airways. The airline’s retro-look crimson uniform took a massive 33% of all votes.
The top ten most stylish airlines ranked in order of most stylish*:
- Air France
- British Airways
- Iberia
- Alitalia
- SAS
- Delta
- Aeroflot
- Jet Airways
- Lufthansa
*Over 500 users participated in the survey of the top 10 airlines as detailed above.
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My Take: I really do not care what the flight crew wears, just so long as they were clothes. There is one thing I can bother me about on a flight and that is smoking. Because I 
use the disposable electronic cigarette when I need a cigarette in places I can’t smoke a regular cigarette. I can vaguely remember a time when you could smoke on an airplane, not anymore. The e cigarette is the best cigarette you can smoke because it’s healthier and cleaner.
But back to the fashion and airlines, who really cares whether the flight crew is wearing sorority apparel or a uniform? Now that was the Greek clothing they wore centuries ago in Greece, now that could cause problems. All they really need to wear is something that’s comfortable and distinctive. They don’t need to wear flame resistant clothing unless they are on the airports fire team.
I also find it pretty difficult to see them wearing Carhartt clothing, which is usually more rugged for workers like carpenters or welders. I do not think that the airline attendant need short skirts or tight pants to look good on a flight. I know that many of the female flight attendants have seen a plastic surgeon so that they will look better. That just tells me they’re looking for a husband and not worried about job. Of course, they do have a weight limit for their attendance and it would be a job saver to get tummy tuck surgeon take away that bulging tummy.
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Source: Fashion Wire Daily
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