Loving this piece from the NYT Style Magazine on the former glory of the styles of the skies.

“We’re told that there was a magical time long ago when, whatever your seat assignment, flying was first-class. But when did it all end? Last week, Marie Force, the archivist at the Delta Heritage Museum in Atlanta, published an online gallery of photographs of Delta flight attendant uniforms from 1940 to the present. “Delta was one of the more conservative airlines,” Force says. “We didn’t have hot pants.” Still, for almost 40 straight years, the airline’s female flight attendants (something called “stewardesses”) turned heads.

In the 1940s, they did it with military-style overseas caps and spectator shoes; in the ’50s, with futurist insignias and stiletto pumps; and in the ’60s, with A-line topcoats, alligator-print boots, Chanel-inspired jackets with three-quarter-length sleeves and the “Delberet,” a pillbox hat designed for Delta by Mea Hanauer, a New York milliner. The ’70s were all about coo-coo colors, bell-bottom pants, Slavic tunics and, weirdly, a yellow raincoat. And then in the ’80s, Delta took a sartorial nosedive that it couldn’t recover from until 2001. Return your seat to its upright position, and take a look.”

My mom was actually just telling me today that the prettiest girl she knew as a teenage in Memphis went on to be a Pan-American stewardess and that it was the biggest deal because only the most beautiful girls were hired by Pan-American.  Then, she was scouted by someone from Hollywood who was on one of her flights, and she ended up in the movie South Pacific.  A “fairytale story,” as my mom put it.  Those were different days indeed.
Article here.

via… someone who still flies in style… thanks!

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