# Flight Attendants used to wear the coolest uniforms EVER



## TinCan782 (Jan 24, 2016)

Style in the Sky: Vintage photos show how Flight Attendants used to wear the coolest uniforms EVER

Foremost in my memory are the "stews" of _PSA_ in the early seventies...

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/01/23/fashion-in-the-sky-vintage-photos-show-how-flight-attendants-used-to-wear-the-coolest-uniforms-ever/


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## Ryan (Jan 24, 2016)

Some still do - when my wife and I flew to Iceland on Wow, the flight crew came into the airport just behind us in the line to clear security. All I could say was "Wow!"


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## AmtrakBlue (Jan 24, 2016)

Ryan said:


> Some still do - when my wife and I flew to Iceland on Wow, the flight crew came into the airport just behind us in the line to clear security. All I could say was "Wow!"
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh, my! Their dresses are at their knees. Obviously not retro. And I like that. Earlier uniforms, like the hot pants, were sexist.


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## XHRTSP (Jan 24, 2016)

Your average flight attentant won't fill out those clothes as nicely.


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 24, 2016)

Call me old, call me sexist, but I thought that the "stews" ( they were all young, single females) back in the day were really hot and that their uniforms were mostly cool! ( not the military influenced ones!)YMMV

When Southwest Airlines first started they advertised with Stews in a "Fly us"Campaign and they wore Hot Pants and Go Go Boots!

Braniff had their unis designed by famous designers and ran a " Flying Colors" Ad Campaign that featured the unis and the planes!


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## Ryan (Jan 24, 2016)

XHRTSP said:


> Your average flight attentant won't fill out those clothes as nicely.


Must have been the Icelandic women, because every single one of them on both flights looked exactly like that.

I was... impressed.


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## willem (Jan 24, 2016)

When I get elected emperor, high heels will be optional but discouraged—except for males. Then high heels will be optional but not discouraged. As Mark Twain said of slavery, he was opposed to it except for two classes of people: those who wanted it for themselves, and those who wanted it for others.


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## SarahZ (Jan 24, 2016)

I've always wondered why flight attendants wear heels. They don't seem very practical for emergency situations.

I often love the outfits, though, both past and present. Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic have some pretty snazzy FA uniforms. Virgin Atlantic even has their own brand of lipstick:

http://www.today.com/id/46892437/ns/today-today_style/t/virgin-atlantic-launches-upper-class-red-lipstick


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## trainman74 (Jan 25, 2016)

willem said:


> When I get elected emperor, high heels will be optional but discouraged—except for males. Then high heels will be optional but not discouraged. As Mark Twain said of slavery, he was opposed to it except for two classes of people: those who wanted it for themselves, and those who wanted it for others.


There was a time when men did wear high heels as part of formal outfits -- of course, they went along with powdered wigs and whatnot.

When I get elected God, I'm going to alter women's bodies so that they're perfectly comfortable in high heels. (And won't complain that they're cold in the office, either!  )


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 25, 2016)

XHRTSP said:


> Your average flight attentant won't fill out those clothes as nicely.


I've actually seen some amazingly sophisticated flight attendants here in the 2010's with airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways. Even LCC's such as Air Asia and Nok Air tend to have attractive if not attentive FA's. US Airlines haven't featured fashionable flight attendants in decades. Somewhere in the 1980's they either quit or just kind of gave up trying to look good or showing any obvious class or sophistication. Or at least that has been my experience. The current setup is especially unfortunate for everyone involved. The job of a flight attendant sucks as much as ever but since they have little or no control over any of it they seem to release their frustrations by exhibiting perpetual indifference with the occasional irrational power trip toward their paying customers. In many ways I've become desensitized to it but every once in a while they still manage to shock me with their arrogance.


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 25, 2016)

Sounds like some Amtrak employees also Chris!


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 25, 2016)

Bob Dylan said:


> Sounds like some Amtrak employees also Chris!


I've actually had some fairly good service experiences on Amtrak lately. That's half thanks to a string of friendly and attentive SCA's and half thanks to intentionally avoiding the almost universally disappointing dining car experience. I actually kind of wish I had started ignoring the Amtrak dining car a long time ago. I understand that some folks find the dining car the best part of their trip but I never have and probably never will. Removing it from my schedule started paying dividends almost immediately. As for the general look of the crew I wish they would go back to a more professional look. I'm not sure how other folks feel about it but for me a high quality formal uniform can make all the difference in the world.


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## NW cannonball (Jan 26, 2016)

Bob Dylan said:


> Call me old, call me sexist, but I thought that the "stews" ( they were all young, single females) back in the day were really hot and that their uniforms were mostly cool! ( not the military influenced ones!)YMMV
> 
> When Southwest Airlines first started they advertised with Stews in a "Fly us"Campaign and they wore Hot Pants and Go Go Boots!
> 
> Braniff had their unis designed by famous designers and ran a " Flying Colors" Ad Campaign that featured the unis and the planes!


( not the military influenced ones!)

Hehe - My dear daughter, traveling on uniform-of-the-day rules -- Navy dress blues.

She was really ANNOYED that passengers at ORD expected her, in her NAVY uniform, to be some kind of helpful airline employee 

She woulda helped if she coulda but she don't know airline schedules from bilgewater.

I'm thinking that the luckily gone fad for making airline grunts look like NAVY officers -- is well gone.

I've no problem with the 3-stripe or 4-stripe convention for senior air pilots, no confusion there.

Just sayin


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