Flight attendants are really taking off By Donna Freydkin, Special for USA TODAY The sky's the limit for flight attendants, the glam globe-trotters who are= =20 earning their wings on the page, on the big screen and on the fashion=20 runway. Signs that flight attendants are suddenly chic: Gwyneth Paltrow=20 plays an idealistic small-town girl who dreams of jetting off to Paris in=20 the Miramax comedy View From the Top, opening Friday and co-starring=20 Christina Applegate, Kelly Preston and Candice Bergen as sassy flight=20 attendants. The glossy coffee-table tome Come Fly With Us! A Global=20 History of the Airline Hostess (Collectors Press, $24.95) arrives March=20 31. The heavily hyped British Airways uniforms designed by haute couturier= =20 Julien MacDonald, the creative director of Givenchy, are being tested by=20 100 of the airline's employees. The public's fascination with flight=20 attendants goes back to May 15, 1930, when the first one, Iowan Ellen=20 Church, started flying on Boeing Air Transport. Like Church, early=20 stewardesses were registered nurses hired to convince a wary public that=20 airplanes were safe, but they quickly became icons of style and= sophistication. "They were independent women with glamorous jobs when that was rare," says= =20 Johanna Omelia, who co-wrote Come Fly With Us with Michael Waldock. "They=20 shopped in Italy, swam in Bali, dined in Paris, traveled around the world=20 and were admired every step of the way. Even today, you can come out from=20 whatever your background is and be in Tokyo tomorrow." The early=20 jet-setters had to look the part. The 1930s attendants were single, under=20 25, weighed less than 115 pounds and were shorter than 5-foot-4 =97 for=20 practical reasons, too, because planes were small and narrow. In the '70s,= =20 weight and marriage restrictions were dropped, and courts forced airlines=20 to hire male stewards. Even though "flight attendants remain the face of=20 the airline," says Omelia, their primary focus, as in the early days, is on= =20 passenger comfort and safety. "Flight attendants are a mirror of how far women have come," says Bergen,=20 who plays Sally Weston, View's patron saint of flight attendants. "Before,= =20 they were seen as sex objects, but job and packaging and requirements have= =20 changed so much over the years. Now, they're here to help passengers get=20 from point A to point B in one piece, and they have to wield hot water as a= =20 weapon." Movies continue to pay homage to these jills-of-all-trades who mix= =20 strong drinks, warm baby bottles and instruct passengers on emergency=20 landing procedures. In Cameron Crowe's '70s music tribute Almost Famous,=20 Anita Miller (Zooey Deschanel) escapes a domineering mother by becoming a=20 stewardess. In last year's Catch Me If You Can, fugitive Frank Abagnale=20 (Leonardo DiCaprio) is surrounded by a harem of fawning flight attendants=20 as he coolly strolls to a plane. Even View's Preston was smitten with=20 flight attendants while dating a pilot in her late teens. "I thought it could be a very fun and interesting job with irresistible=20 perks," says Preston, who is married to avid pilot John Travolta. "It's=20 such a great gift to be able to see the world. There was a real elegance to= =20 being a flight attendant, something very stylish about it." Certainly,=20 flight attendants set trends in the swinging '60s and '70s. Pucci created=20 Air Braniff's psychedelic uniforms while TWA went one better by having its= =20 women wear paper outfits. Only slightly less lurid is Preston's gaudy=20 fuchsia and purple ensemble in View, which she dubs "the Lycra special with= =20 the knee boots." On the more conservative side is Givenchy's MacDonald.=20 MacDonald spent eight months designing British Airway's tailored collection= =20 of dark navy Polyester/wool low-slung pants, tailored skirts, lean jackets= =20 =97 all with flashy metallic gray or red linings =97 and white cotton= shirts.=20 The official rollout date is still pending. "There's always a mystery about= =20 flight attendants," he says. "You have these glamorous people who fly=20 around the world. Air travel is exciting and takes you beyond your normal=20 life to a holiday destination or a place of dreams, and their look should=20 reflect that. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************