What Flight Attendants Wore When Flying was Actually Cool

When I was a kid, I was always incredibly excited to take a trip on a commercial airliner. Everything about airline travel was so trendy and cool.  The term "jet set" was applied at that time to those who traveled on airplanes and it really seemed like we were special when we took to the skies. 

Currently, the San Francisco Airport has a display in its little museum featuring the clothes flight attendants wore during this bygone era of the late 1960s through the early 1970s.  The style is colorful and fun.  The blue uniforms pictured are those of attendants from the now-defunct Braniff Airlines.  My family and I flew Braniff during this era to visit my grandparents who lived in Florida, and I remember the attendants wearing these exact uniforms.  It was like we were being served by some sort of glamorous, almost-movie-stars--at least it seemed that way to a little kid like me.

The other uniforms are those of attendants from United Airlines of that same era. Today, flight attendants' garb looks the same as what's worn today at my neighborhood bank and has the same minuscule amount of style.  I suppose there was a lot of sexist evil in the airline industry at that time related to flight attendants, incomprehensible to children like me who were flying, and we are all glad that those excesses are generally gone. Yet, I do miss the sense of fun, color, and style of these uniforms that seems to have totally disappeared from our public lives, in the dreary days of the 2020s.  





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