Donning my hard hat for this one - cabin crew appearance

Good to hear what it was like at the coal face

Ex BA hostie here. We had high heels to walk through the airport and then flat cabin shoes. Our uniform was by Paul Costello and we had to wear a certain colour of red lipstick and nail polish was mandatory, as was make up. That was in the eighties.

But remember, in reality the crew are not there to look glamorous, the fact that they serve you refreshments is an added bonus. They are there primarily for your safety.

Its bloody hard work, so often we looked bedraggled despite our best efforts. We’re human after all, but honestly some of the personal and stupid remarks people come out with are just incredulous.

I was on the good salary with BA but now the salaries are dreadful. You certainly don’t do it for the money.

I don’t know who makes the Virgin or TUI uniforms now but when TUI were Britannia, the uniforms were designed by Elizabeth Emmanuel. It didn’t mean that the quality of the fabric was good I can tell you.

Over 20yrs ago I worked for a company that designed and made high end uniforms. We did lots of airlines and the real high point was when we landed the Emirates account. I can tell you that so much thought and time and love and attention used to go into those uniforms. We designed the hell out of them and were really proud of them.

When we got the Virgin account the budget was initially £5,000 per cabin crew - this was for the Westwood uniform and it was an unheard of sum in the industry. It was beyond crazy. We also had to personally destroy all old uniforms. When we re-wrote their uniform guidelines it was an A5 booklet half an inch thick. Everything was mandated down to manicure colour, heel height, hair style, lipstick. All provided free of course.

They should wear whatever is most comfortable to operate in (particularly on long haul flights) and doesn’t scare the horses. Critically, no clothing that would impede egress of the plane in an emergency - so heels are out.

The tight skirt and heels just screams male fantasy.

Well I travelled on a plane recently. Long haul, BA. I had no make up on, was tired and very casually dressed. Defo had a vpl going on.

The cabin crew were polite enough to not mention it at all. They were all perfectly lovely and I even woke up to find one of them gently replacing my blanket and closing the blind for me. Who would have thought they had no interest in how I looked whatsoever!

Hate to burst your bubble, but cabin crew are mandatory only for safety reasons and evacuating an aircraft.

All the rest is marketing.

And let's face it, you don't get the same class of passenger.

How many stories do you read now of drunk abusive passengers who behave like football thugs or the lowest most ignorant segment of society, who think with their fists or their potty mouths.

Couldn’t give a toss 😂 as long as they are doing their job 👍

I’m inclined to agree to an extent. I’m more of a Ryanair flyer over Virgin, and I understand that salaries aren’t huge but I do think there has been a decline in effort and appearance. Far too much make-up and dishevelled. I’m all for comfortable uniforms but don’t rock up to work in crumpled, grubby looking clothing.

Something I have noticed over the last few years is that cabin crew have got noisier. They thump up and down the cabin, slam doors shut in the galleys and bang the drawers in on the trolleys. I’m not mega keen on flying and the clattering and banging around can sometimes be a bit too much to cope with. Plus, if on the rare occasion I happen to be nodding off to sleep, there will be a noise from the cabin crew and I’ll jolt awake.

Proper first world problem this one, and the option isn’t there to fly with a different airline (although I did fly with KLM recently and they were well turned out, nice and calm in the cabin). It won’t stop me from flying Ryanair but a little more professionalism would be nice sometimes.

I posted on here earlier about how well I was looked after when I became ill on a flight, not only were the staff professional and reassuring, they were so kind and did all they could to care for me.

They don't wear high heels, wear badly fitting uniforms and have vpl?
How on earth will people cope? What about the middle class flyers? It's enough to make them choke on their gin and tonics 😲
I would be writing a very stiff letter to the airlines CEO to make him aware of my disapproval.
It's simply not good enough that people are paying good money for a flight to be served by someone of shabby appearance.
Standards absolutely must be maintained, otherwise it's a slippery slope and before we know it you won't be able to tell who is passenger and who is staff.
Most combobulating!

I was on an easyJet flight yesterday and I did look down at the cabin crew member's feet - thinking why the hell do they still make them wear court shoes when they're standing for nearly 4 hours?

From the rest of the thread I see they're maybe not mandatory but 3 of the 4 were women and in navy courts.

Doesn’t sound smart tbh.

I just went one way BA and one way Ryanair. The BA uniforms were good quality, well styled and fitted well. The Ryanair ones were terrible - poor design, cheap material and ill fitting. All
about money I guess.

You deserve flaming

I'd rather a pleasant cabin crew with vpl than a snooty one with immaculate make up 🤷

We’re all the men perfectly dressed?

I don't know if it's been said yet but the reason so many female crew have their hair in a high bun is a safety requirement not for the aesthetic. They cannot have hair past their collar.

In the very very early days cabin crew were mostly if not totally male (legacy from cruise liner days) the first female cabin crew appeared in the ?1920s and the uniforms were military style.

I think the requirement to be glamorous/chic crept in a bit later, during the sixties…

But it was VERY early days of flying. If you think 80s and 90s, then that experience was already far more ordinary.

In the beginning flying was marketed as something very special. If you look at footage from the early days of commercial flying you will see the interiors looked very different (very high end), passengers dressed in their best clothes and the cabin staff were made to look like chic models. It was meant to be an upmarket experience, not the cattle like transit it is today.

I don't imagine that the staff in Sainsbury's had been in uniform for 18 hours, had to run around after often rude and demanding passengers, dealt with vomiting children, slept in their uniform or been told that they've got to change their tights mid shift because they've got a tiny hole in them which would compromise their 'appearance'!

Do they look shabby/disshelved? Smudged makeup? Alcohol breath?

I find the 'old' expectation for them to wear blooming heels and mini skirts really sexist.

Probably because they'd not got jet lag, not had minimum rest, and weren't in their feet for 12 hours at 36000 feet....nor slept in crew bunks in their uniform!!!!

Absolutely!