=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/04/15/f= inancial0905EDT0044.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, April 15, 2004 (AP) New designer wardrobes give airlines welcome lift DANIEL MICHAELS, The Wall Street Journal (04-15) 06:05 PDT (AP) -- PARIS -- The airline industry is in tatters, but carriers around the wor= ld are trying to dress up their image with high-fashion uniforms. Delta Air Lines hired handbag queen Kate Spade to give its low-fare airline, Song, a glamorous look, with sporty outfits set to make their debut Thursday. Delta also hired Los Angeles couturier Richard Tyler to create a "sophisticated" wardrobe for the parent airline for 2006. Air France, meanwhile, has selected Christian Lacroix to replace a hodgepodge of aging uniforms with a new line next year. And on April 26, British Airways plans to replace its decade-old outfits with pin-striped, tailored uniforms from Julien Macdonald. Cash-strapped airlines find smart new uniforms are a relatively simple w= ay to pick up appearances and even recapture some bygone prestige. Remember the glory days of air travel, when Emilio Pucci wrapped Braniff Airways' "stewardesses" in a sexy look that helped define the Jet Age? Pakistan International Airways' female flight attendants sported Pierre Cardin outfits with head scarves. The new uniforms share a distinctly retro feel. The simple lines of Ms. Spade's charcoal stretch-worsted wool dress and suits, accented with Song's signature green, hark back to the days of Jacqueline Kennedy. Mr. Macdonald says his pinstripes were inspired by Savile Row attention to detail. The clean, classic lines of Mr. Lacroix's navy suits are broken by playful touches, such as a flouncy, powder-blue scarf for women. The fashion upgrade is notable in the U.S., where cabin-crew garb had grown frumpy over the past two decades. In February, Delta's announcement of new uniforms raised eyebrows because the carrier has lost over $3 billion and laid off more than 16,000 workers since Sept. 11, 2001 -- and it changed its uniforms only a few months before the attacks. Delta is switching to a "professional," tailored look, from the "casual Friday" style it adopted just as that trend was ending. In the 1990s, amid the airline industry's financial troubles and the emergence of the casual workplace, cabin-crew outfits "looked like McDonald's uniforms," laments Joanne Arbuckle, associate professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Now, carriers are returning to the view that uniforms are as much a part of marketing as the logo and the exterior of the plane. By pairing top designers with savvy purchasing managers, airlines find they can actually trim costs from previous wardrobes. "We've found that style does not have to cost more," says Joanne Smith, marketing vice president at Song. Song's new uniforms cost 10 percent less than Delta's because the discou= nt carrier offers fewer elements for flight attendants to choose from, Ms. Smith says. British Airways cut its cost per outfit by 30 percent by sourcing the same material for men's and women's suits and also by simplifying: The new BA wardrobe has three different buttons compared with eight for the previous collection. Still, a makeover is a major logistical operation. It takes a small army to canvass staff opinions, field-test garments, procure the clothes and distribute orders, a process that can last for months. Mr. Macdonald worked with British Airways for three years on its new look. New York designer Stan Herman is only now finishing a line started for JetBlue Airways in 1999. "We did it with a wink and a nod to the Jet Age," recalls the airline's vice president of corporate communications, Gareth Edmonson-Jones. When Germany's Lufthansa reclad 25,000 workers in 2002, the swap involved 490,000 pieces, including women's tops, skirts and accessories designed by Gabriele Strehle. Air France is now measuring 35,000 staff members, who make selections from a glossy catalog listing some 100 items, from shoes to maternity clothes. To avoid waste, many airlines have each piece made to order. Most airlines supply uniforms, although some U.S. carriers require new hires to pay for theirs. But costs remain fairly constant no matter who sketches the silhouette. A full uniform can cost more than $1,000, but only a fraction of that goes to pay for the designer. Contracts with designers range from flat fees to hourly consulting charges. Carriers say the price tag is offset by the resulting boost in staff morale and customer satisfaction. "Your first impression is the appearance of the ground staff," notes Carole Peytavin, head of Air France's uniform team. With airlines all flying the same Airbus and Boeing jetliners and sharing the same airports, staff is one of the few areas where a carrier can differentiate itself, she says. The additional cost of involving Christian Lacroix "is immediately absorbed by the impact" on staff and passengers, she adds. "The first day they wear these, you'll feel the difference." Flight-crew garments have to last for years, but they also must be forgiving: Cabin staff move and sweat for hours, and their clothes have to look as spiffy after a long-haul flight as on takeoff. A uniform should clearly identify an employee and convey authority without intimidating. It must be washable in all corners of the world and be comfortable throughout a journey from a wintry city to the tropics. Security requirements add complexity: After the Sept. 11 attacks, British Airways had to redesign neckwear so it couldn't be used to choke. "The challenge is to make it as tough as the Tin Man's suit and look like couture," says BA design manager Mike Crump. For designers, airlines offer a break with routine and the chance to dre= ss thousands of visible people. Mr. Lacroix follows Christian Dior, Nina Ricci and other design legends in outfitting Air France. In an e-mail interview, Mr. Lacroix said he tried to keep some of the "famous spirit of 'Frenchness"' and the "Parisian 'je ne sais quoi' " created by his predecessors, while putting his own mark on the new line. Mr. Macdonald wanted a hat for British Airways' female staff, but they balked: Hats mess up hair and are tough to stow. The designer worked with a British milliner to develop a practical cap with a retro look that he says has been well received. "The queen always wears a hat," Mr. Macdonald notes. "It's quite a British thing." In the infancy of air travel in the 1930s, many of the first stewardesses were registered nurses and wore severe, woolen-skirted suits. Air hostesses in pillbox hats became the stuff of pop culture. In 1965, the Jet Age took off. Braniff Airways, of Dallas, and its image consultant, Mary Wells, hired Emilio Pucci to dress the cabin staff in a modern, sexy look that Braniff called "the End of the Plain Plane." With a canny eye on its predominantly male clientele, the airline called the variable wardrobe, which flight attendants could change before, during and after a flight, the "Air Strip." Soon the stewardess was as much a fashion icon as the jet-setters she served. British Overseas Airways Corp., the predecessor of British Airways, tried a single-use paper minidress on Caribbean routes in 1967 (and scuttled it after finding that male passengers would splash water on the dress to make it transparent). Budget pioneer Southwest Airlines filled its planes in the early 1970s thanks in part to flight attendants in miniskirts and go-go boots. Mr. Tyler says he hopes other U.S. carriers follow the return-to-fashion trend. "They certainly need it," he says. >From Runway To Runway A brief history of the fashion world's forays into designing flight-attendant uniforms: * 1965: Braniff Airways: Emilio Pucci outfits 'stewardesses' in plastic 'space bubble' helmets. * 1966: Pakistan International Airways: Pierre Cardin designs a uniform incorporating a head scarf. * 1967: British Overseas Airways Corp.: Don Harrison, the airline's art editor, lets cabin crew cut their own hemlines on a single-wear paper minidress. * 1971: American Airlines: Bill Blass * 1972: Southwest Airlines: Runs TV commercials touting 'hostesses in hot pants' * 1978: TWA: Ralph Lauren creates 'clean-cut styles that put a touch of "uniform" back in the uniforms,' TWA says. * 1999: JetBlue: Stan Herman designs elegant uniforms with an ironic nod to past glamour. * 2002: Lufthansa: Gabriele Strehle/Strenesse * 2003: Qantas: Peter Morrissey * 2004: British Airways: Julien MacDonald * 2004: Japan Airlines: Yoshie Inaba * 2004: Song: Kate and Andy Spade design suits with a retro feel. * 2005: Air France: Christian Lacroix includes classic lines and playful touches. * 2006: Delta Air Lines: Richard Tyler is designing a 'sophisticated' wardrobe. Source: the airlines ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 AP