If you fly America's major airlines today, you probably think that flight attendant uniforms are kind of boring — navy blue, unremarkable, resembling a sort of dowdy suit. But they weren't always this way.
In decades past, when flying was still seen as a glamorous activity and airlines restricted their hiring to young, attractive women (a practice that's now illegal in the U.S.), the uniforms issued by America's biggest airlines were fantastical, fashionable, sexy or downright weird.
And in some places around the world, they still are.
All this is on display in Cliff Muskiet's collection. Muskiet, a purser who flies around the world for the Dutch airline KLM, has amassed what is perhaps the world's largest collection of flight attendant uniforms, many of which he features on his Web site. This sci-fi creation from Muskiet's collection was the uniform of Braniff International Airways, a U.S. carrier that closed in the 1980s, in 1965 and 1966, for example:
This Kuwait Airlines uniform from the 1990s featured a detailed print and jaunty hat:
Iberia Airline used this psychedelic-meets-military uniform in the 1970s:
This comfy-looking uniform was used by RAM, a Moroccan airline, in the 1990s:
Muskiet has been fascinated with airplanes ever since he flew from New York to Amsterdam as a 5-year-old. He started collecting uniforms at the age of 15, when a flight attendant friend of his mother's gave him her old uniform. "I thought it was really interesting because a uniform is really special and it was hard to get."
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Now his collection contains more than 1,300 uniforms from roughly 500 airlines. The uniforms are a fascinating reflection of fashion through the decades, national styles of dress around the world, and our changing attitudes toward flying itself.
In the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, for example, flight attendant outfits were quite conservative and often echoed military uniforms. Most had long skirts, tailored jackets, white or cream-colored blouses, and a hat.
But beginning in the 1960s, flight attendant fashion gets a lot more adventurous, and a lot more fun. Uniforms suddenly featured psychedelic prints, bright colors, short skirts and hot pants, Muskiet says — echoing the huge shift in fashion with the arrival of 1960s and 1970s counter-culture.
One of Muskiet's favorites is the United Airlines uniform from 1968, which came in four different colors and was designed by Jean Louis, a prominent fashion designer. Louis purportedly said about the uniform, which was much more feminine than previous iterations, "There’s no reason in the world why stewardesses have to look like tank commanders."
But just having a uniform created by a big-name designer isn't necessarily a recipe for success, says Muskiet. He criticizes the 1980s Qantas uniform designed by Yves St. Laurent, with its suiting and big cuffs, as making the flight attendants look "like bellboys working in a hotel."
Share this articleShareThat ultra-feminine phase didn't last. In the 1970s, flight attendants began to wear pants, as in the Allegheny Airlines uniform below, and by the 1990s, flight attendant uniforms came to resemble business attire.
Other uniforms reflect a national tradition of dress. For example, Emirates, an airline based in Dubai, has a Western-style uniform, but the hat features a veil. Many Indian airlines issue saris for their female flight attendants, while female flight attendants for Thai Airlines wear a uniform of Thai silk on the plane, with an orchid on their lapel, Muskiet says. The uniforms for airlines in Singapore and Malaysia incorporate sarong kebayas, a traditional blouse-dress combo, like below:
Female flight attendants for Air France also wear flower-printed dresses on flights to Tahiti:
Muskiet says that his sentimental favorite is probably from KLM, an airline that he used to fly as a kid. "It reminds me of my childhood. The hat that is part of the uniform, it’s like a mushroom. I was always fascinated by this hat," he says.
He also likes the current uniform for XiamenAir in China, Aeroflot, Etihad from Abu Dhabi and Air Portugal, pictured below. He says he dislikes the uniforms of Austrian Airlines and Iberia Airline.
When Muskiet looks back at these decades of glamorous uniforms, he sees cause for nostalgia.
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For one thing, these uniforms reflect an era in which people were more likely to dress up in public, unlike the casual — or sloppy — styles of today. "When you look at the '40s and '50s, it was a very normal thing for women to wear gloves and hats. If you went out to a cinema or theater, everyone was dressed up. … But fashion has changed over the years, and also the uniform has changed," Muskiet says.
Here is the uber-casual uniform that Southwest Airlines used in the late 1990s and early 2000s, for example:
But Muskiet also sees a darker side to the fashionable look of the late 1960s — the stringent and demeaning requirements placed on female employees, who typically had to be young, attractive, and a size 2 or 4.
"Back in the 'good old days,' you had to have a certain look, you had to have a certain size. Sometimes you had to have a similar hairstyle, because the airline wanted you all to look the same. Now everyone can be just like they want to be. … You don't have to be Miss Universe to become a flight attendant," Muskiet says.
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When Muskiet first joined KLM, flight attendants had to be between the ages of 21 and 28. The airline later raised the maximum age to 32, then 34, and then abolished it altogether, he says. Like many airlines, KLM still has height requirements for flight attendants and requires them to wear mascara and lip gloss, he says, but the rest is up to the individual.
Muskiet can't say exactly why he's so drawn to the uniforms. "It’s hard to explain ... why do you like bananas, and why don’t you like oranges?" he asks. But part of it is undoubtedly his love for airplanes — both the beauty of their design and the amazing experience of traveling from one side of the world to the other in a few hours. "Even though a lot of people don’t think flying is glamorous today, for me it has something glamorous," he says.
"Every time I go to work and we take off, I’m always thrilled. The sound of the engine, the fact that the airplane takes off, the speed, flying over mountains and oceans. ... The whole thing — it’s really wow."
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