A Dallas woman’s vintage clothing collection pays homage to an era when air travel was a glamorous and stylish mode of transport.
Deborah Brown has always had an interest in vintage clothing, but she became hooked on a specific niche of vintage wear when she attended a Braniff International fashion show four years ago. There, she saw colorful airline stewardess uniforms created by Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci.
From then on, she began collecting vintage flight attendant uniforms, many created by well-known fashion designers. She has Pan Am uniforms by film and television costume designer Edith Head. She has TWA uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren.
Brown’s oldest items in the collection are American Airlines uniforms dating from the 1950s. Altogether, she has 122 uniforms from 22 different airlines. She told NBC 5 DFW that her most valuable piece is a Braniff “space helmet” designed by Pucci. The clear bubble-shaped helmet was created to protect the flight attendant’s hairstyle as she boarded the plane in windy weather.
The uniform collection offers a snapshot of the past, reflecting the clothing styles of the 50s, 60s, and 70s and the logos of the name-brand airlines of that period. Some of the airline companies have since ceased operations. Though these businesses and clothing styles may be relics of the past, Brown’s collection is keeping the memories of them alive for current and future generations.
In 1930, Ellen Branch, a 25-year-old nurse, became the first female flight attendant after she convinced Boeing Air Transport, which later became United Airlines, that having a nurse on board would help passengers overcome their fear of flying. She was soon joined by seven other nurses, and they wore uniforms consisting of green woolen skirts and jackets with matching gray and green caps and capes.
Through the years, uniforms for flight attendants evolved, going from conservative and drab to colorful, hipper, and sexier.
“Hot pants and short dresses with hot pants underneath were a common look in the 1960s and ’70s, and Continental, PSA and Southwest Airlines all had uniforms featuring that style,” Cliff Muskiet, curator of an online flight attendant uniform museum, told NBC News.
“In those years, the stewardess was used to attract male passengers, and hot pants were part of the plan,” he said.
In the late 1970s, flight attendant uniforms became more utilitarian and have mostly remained that way to the present, according to Conde Nast Traveler.
Brown has found most of the items in her treasure trove by searching the internet.
She told NBC 5 that she goes online to eBay at least 12 times a day, looking for pieces to add to her ever-growing collection. She plans to keep at it until she “collect[s] the whole collection,” she told NBC 5.
