Donning my hard hat for this one - cabin crew appearance

Been on a Virgin flight recently and the staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful which is what I'm interested in. As it happened, everyone I saw looked like they'd made an effort to be well presented also, as you'd expect people to do in a customer service role.

I'm with you OP. Only Middle Eastern or Asian airlines probably still have those same glamorous standards.

(And I have no illusions about my own fat arse and ugly face but air hostesses used to be how I dreamed of looking.)

So your criticising cabin crew who still look better than all the scruffy tattooed people on board?
If you want people to have class,then make it extend to the flyers as well.

I had this thought on a recent Ryanair flight. I flew Quantas and then emirates I think years ago and remember thinking they were so glam - thin, perfect make up, perfect fitting uniforms they looked like models. But these just looked like normal people 🤷‍♀️. Morley necessarily a bad thing. I mean, on the other flights I went on 10 years back they were obviously picking people based on looks. I do find it funny though how every male flight attendant I’ve cone across seems incredibly camp 😂🤷‍♀️

Other airlines manage to design uniforms that are flattering, comfortable and elegant on long flights (e.g emirates, Singapore). Their employment policies

The Virgin uniform is horribly dated and unflattering. It’s a bit embarrassing really

My cousin is BA Cabin crew and always looks very glam.

I'm nearly 50 and being the kid of missionaries, I boarded my first flight when I was 8 years old. Back then I think cabin crew were mostly female and they were impossibly skinny and glamorous. I have vague memories of an airline 'hostess' bringing me a colouring book, crayons and a teddy on my first ever flight...they were like lovely angels.

But times have changed and I'm incredibly thankful they have. No longer do women have to live up to an impossible standard of beauty and weight in order to be deemed 'worthy' of having a certain of job. We no longer have to bow to the captain as though he was some kind of god...because these days sometimes the captain is a woman and at that, is a total goddess who has battered her way through a male dominated industry to do the thing she loved.

So in short, yes, everyone should turn up to work looking clean and smart but if you're hankering after the bygones where women floated about like angels, silently tending to your every need, those days are (thankfully) gone.

I mean, weighing staff, dictating what lipstick they wear, no tattoos, Branson turning up for a photo op in front of his plane emblazoned with a ‘busty babe’, the full on misogyny. It just wouldn’t fly these days would it. No pun intended.

I fly Emirates most often and they're always glam looking with their red lipstick I think.

Last time we flew with them we were sitting at the back of the plane and at one stage my toddler went for a walk down to the end of the aisle (along with my husband) to where the flight attendants were sitting and came back up with biscuits and red lipstick kisses on his cheeks. 😅

Appearance is very low down the list of things that I appreciate in a flight attendant however, it really doesn't matter to me what they're wearing.

Put much better than I did!!

My mate used to work for Emirates and she was weighed weekly to check she was still slim

Make up products etc regularly checked too

Would that stop her serving me a sandwich or helping me off the plane in an emergency?

@sprigatito excellent post.

That’s brilliant! I thought the blond guy was wearing a wetsuit or something until I twigged what was going on!

I also remember in the 90s that Virgin and maybe BA would make a big deal of having famous designers in to do the uniforms. Female staff were given a sort of makeover and expected to stick to the makeup colours/style their trainer had decided on for them.

Virgin especially were known for being very selective over their crew and had the ‘height and weight must be in proportion’ rule, possibly on their job adverts?

The crew were expected to change into high heels to walk through the airport, with a lower, but still heeled, court, while on board.

Im pretty sure they were on low salaries and it was possible to fail the training half way through the course and be let go.
I can’t remember if I learned this from those airline documentaries at Heathrow or Liverpool though!

They are there for safety and to serve passengers.

Check your misogyny. Women don't have to "look pretty" for the male gaze to be able to do their jobs well. Times have moved on - a bit anyway. Still a long way to go but at least airlines have recognised that staff aren't there as sexual objects first and foremost.

Flying isn't glamorous. It's bloody hard work for the staff - especially dealing with lechy weirdos who look at their bums to see VPLs.

This x 1000

I see this as entirely a positive development. What has happened is that while sexism is still endemic, the Overton window has gradually shifted to the point where a company can't reasonably mandate that a woman's sex appeal is a necessary part of her professional presentation. It's another little step away from the widespread commodification of women's bodies, and if it means you have to look at the odd pair of ill-fitting trousers, I'd call that a small price to pay 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm so glad the women aren't made to wear high heels and red lipstick anymore. Imagine being on you feet all day in heels. I expect the uniforms are very cheaply made now to keep costs down.

The male cabin crew looked the worst on my last flight, clearly they hadn't heard of an iron.

It's because the quality of the uniform is absolutely terrible. How glamorous can anyone make a pair of shite, polyester trousers or a badly cut, cheap blouse?

Thing is - if your job basically entailed wearing unflattering colours of questionable quality with a layer or 3 of makeup every 4 or 5 days of the week while at times 'on shift' for hours at a time, crossing various time zones, wearing down your body's natural rhythm to the point of nothingness- existing in a non-tangible time and space then I'm sure you might look a bit shattered.

There's a world of difference between a flight attendant who looks quite literally unclean and dishevelled and one who has forgone theatrical concealer because it's no match for their dark under eye circles.

I think they should all do what Air New Zealand did (watch carefully!)

I think its simply a reflection of the times we live in and the fact that taking a budget flight is now akin to taking the bus.

I'm told that crew on private aircraft still dress very well but then I'd imagine they're paid a lot more (I dont know, Ive never been on a private plane).

My last flight on Ryanair had cabin crew dressed in an awful uniform. Why they're expected to wear really tight skirts / trousers / shirts I do not know. Its hardly a uniform conducive to comfort in tight spaces!
In saying that, I wasn’t at all offended by their appearance, they did their jobs well, were polite, efficient and professional - which is what one would hope for in someone basically working in a service industry.

There was also an upper age limit for these women and they were encouraged to accept the attentions of wealthy male customers.