World Cabin Crew
The cabin crew fashions from the 1960s to the present day
From the golden early years of travel, to Vivienne Westwood designing the Virgin Atlantic uniform last year, fashion in the skies has been constantly evolving.
When commercial flying took off in the 1950s, flying was not just for getting from A to B, the flight was a holiday event in itself.
The role of the air hostess was equally glamorised. In her book, Up in the Air, air stewardess Betty Riegel revealed how flight attendants were expected to have the looks of supermodels, the talents of a star housewife and the safety sense of an emergency responder (including knowing how to deliver a baby).
Featuring everything from saris to hotpants, from Hugh Hefner’s private jet to the huge Airbus A380, the skies have seen it all, and rare photographs from Keith Lovegrove's fascinating book, Style at 30,000 feet, gives us a peek back at the history of life in the skies.
Striding British Airway air hostesses model the 1950s-style uniform,smart collared uniform and coifs under their caps
In the ’50s, air hostesses wore trademark white crisp collars and white gloves, with curls under their caps (left), a replica of the adverts promising a 'fascinating jet age career' (right)
Pakistani Air Hostesses pictured at Pakistani Airways House in London in 1957 (left), and elsewhere two years later a gloved uniform was adopted with knee-length dresses (right)
Thai International Airlines cabin crew fashions reflected the Western fashion for business-suit style uniforms in the 1950s
Hardy Amies in the '60s was behind a new uniform for British European Airways which was both classic and unmistakably British
Pan Am air stewardess carrying a baby onto a plane at Bulltofta airport, Sweden in 1950
Brightly coloured Icelandic Air stewardesses pose with a model Douglas DC-8 in the 1960s
Early British Airways air hostesses stride in union from the plane wearing the traditional below-the-knee skirt, gloves and hat
Classic tailoring in the 1960s showed a rise in the hemline (left) from the mid-calf length in earlier uniform designs, (right)
In the 70s the high hemlines reflected the decade's fashion departure from structured style. According to a spokesman at Southwest Airlines of Texas in 1973, when stewardesses were interviewed for jobs, he started with their legs and worked up to their faces