Donning my hard hat for this one - cabin crew appearance

[TellerTuesday]

I do realise I'm probably going to get flamed for this but has anyone else noticed a real decline in the appearance of cabin crew members?

Just had a flight with Virgin and the female members honestly looked dreadful. Ill fitting uniforms, red trousers stretched over VPL bottoms, tight white gaping shirts, one had a drab cardigan over the top.

I realise it's a sexist notion but when I was younger they always looked so glamorous strutting through the airport in their heeled court shoes (mainly flat now it appears), immaculate hair and make up.

Also thought the same when I last flew with TUI. The male cabin crew always seem to look well turned out.

Agree those in these photos look great. The ones on my flight yesterday looked nothing like this.

I'm just a bit baffled that there was ever any need for people doing that job to look any more glamorous than anyone in any other public-facing job. I mean... why?!

I don't think it is just cabin crew, so many go to work these days looking a state. My DH was at a hospital appointment the other the day and his consultant was in trainers that were fit for the bin pre covid and a t shirt that looked as though it had been dragged out the laundry bin. So many people just don't bother to look clean and tidy.

OP is it just cabin crew or also staff of maybe supermarkets whose appearance you are so terribly concerned about?

Well it just an observation as I flew yesterday @AlwaysGinPlease so it was fresh in my mind. Now you've mentioned it though, the staff in Sainsburys this afternoon looked a lot smarter in comparison.

I imagine the airline buys poor quality uniforms for the staff these days in an effort to save money. A poorly cut polyester job will look shit on all but the most model looking of people.

I travelled Virgin earlier this year and thought how smart they all looked, especially with their red coats and red handbag (all designed by Viviene Westwood).

Working in the industry we do hear about how rubbish the uniforms are though, things shrinking etc.

Nasty.

Absolutely!

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!!!!

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.

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'!

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.

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

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…

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.

We’re all the men perfectly dressed?

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

You deserve flaming

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.

Doesn’t sound smart tbh.

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.

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 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.

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.