The Evolution of the Flight Attendant Uniform From 1930s to Today

Have you ever had style lust for a flight attendant? Who can resist a silk neckerchief and a pencil skirt? Though each airline has a different flight attendant uniform, one thing’s for sure: They look good. You’ve got to give them credit for maintaining their sense of fashion from 30,000 feet in the air. Wondering how these fly ladies (see what we did there?) got the garb they wear today? Read on!

The job of flight attendant remains dominated by women even to this day. In the beginning, the air born women were merely nurses. Their job was to help calm people with fears of flying, providing a vital service to airlines. As the number of nurses on each flight increased, they were assigned more tasks and turned into a crew. They were given matching uniforms, with long capes to keep warm across windy tarmacs.

When it comes to uniforms, fashion’s infatuation with flight attendant style trumps all others. Unfortunately, the road to their iconic reputation wasn’t necessarily devoid of offense. Flight attendants were used as objects to promote business. Advertising businesses made their outfits shorter, sexier and sometimes outright ridiculous. Though it seems that the sexiness of flight attendant style has stabilized, unions are still fighting against what they feel are unreasonable uniforms. Just this year, the women of British Airways won their two-year long fight for the right to wear pants.

Flight attendant uniforms are also infamously paralleled to the decades they originate from. Unlike other uniforms, which have stayed largely the same, flight attendant uniforms have gone through an intricate evolution that is both entertaining and shocking at times. Here’s our short breakdown of American flight attendant uniform trends throughout the decades!

• Flight attendant uniforms in the ’30s had long skirts, long sleeves and a generally boxy shape. They were sometimes paired with a long cape to keep from getting cold on the tarmac.

• The ’40s uniform was similar to the ’30s uniform in its features, but had an actual silhouette and a cinched waist. (Some airlines didn’t follow this trend, and put their attendants in short dresses without sleeves, likely as a ploy to draw in more customers.)

• Stewardess caps came into play during the ’50s, as well as collared dresses with a slight v-shape. White popped-looking collars folded over from underneath their buttoned blazers.

• The mod style of the ’70s was evidenced through stewardess fashion. Mock necks and stand-up collars, as well as head scarves and pastels, could be seen walking down the aisles.

• Eighties fashion was the first turn towards more casual clothing for flight attendants. Rather than the pastel and neon uniforms of the past, they could be seen wearing boxy blazers (with shoulder pads of course!). These blazers were paired with simple button ups or blouses.

• The flamboyant stewardess fashion slowed down in the ’90s. Their uniforms became more similar to the standard uniform. Conventional blazers and vests were paired with form fitting dresses.

• Trends in flight attendant uniforms became more about formality and functionality. In the 2000s, uniforms would include pencil skirts or pants paired with an ascot (a nod to the flight attendant style of earlier generations).

Still, there’s much to look forward to when it comes to flight attendant fashion. In 2018, Delta is scheduled to debut its new Zac Posen designed uniforms. (Commissioning popular designers to create new flight attendant uniforms has been a go-to for many companies throughout flight attendant history.) We’re excited to see what Posen has in store for our favorite aerial women