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February 21, 2008 3:28 pm
The days of chicer-than-thou air travel might feel like they’ve gone the way of the propeller plane, but photographer Brian Finke proves that glamour in the skies hasn’t disappeared completely. For his book “Flight Attendants” (powerHouse), Finke crisscrossed the globe for two years documenting the daily lives of the impeccably coiffed, outfitted, and lipsticked flight attendants on a bevy of airlines from Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian, and Hooters Air to Air France, Air Asia, and Icelandair. The result is a series of intriguing and often otherworldly images, which also form the basis of an exhibit that opens today at New York’s ClampArt Gallery. Alix Browne, the deputy style editor for The New York Times Magazine, wrote the introduction and here talks us through the book.
With the security measures taken post-9/11, air travel is hardly glamorous, but looking at Brian Finke’s pictures, you’d hardly know that.
Brian shot a lot of the photos on airlines in countries that still uphold this ideal of flying as a glamorous experience. In America, the marketing strategy these days is no longer focused on the flight attendants, as it was in, say, the sixtes; it’s based on more banalconceits like efficiency, meal service, fares, a little extra leg room. Glamour is a luxury the airline industry can no longer afford, and times and attitudes have changed.
Would one of those attitudes be the ‘flight attendant as sex kitten’stereotype?
Right. In Thailand, there’s a new soap opera about the lives of attendants called “Battle of the Angels.” The unions have been protesting their portrayal as vixens of the airways and have pressured the producers to lengthen the skirts of the uniforms on the show. So it seems even the attendants themselves are no longer buying into the stereotype.
The pictures in the book are amazing. Do you have a favorite?
One of the most provocative images is of an Icelandair flight attendant-in-training—perfectly composed, made up, not a hair out of place—as she aims an extinguisher at a flaming overhead bin. Besides being completely and utterly surreal, the photo encapsulates the plight of the attendants caught between their dueling responsibilities. “I don’t think of myself as a sex symbol or a servant,” went the common defense. “I think of myself as somebody who knows how to open the door of a 747 in the dark, upside down, and in the water.”
Not to mention, look good doing it! In your opinion, which airline has the best-dressed attendants?
Air France flight attendants always look quite chic. And although Southwest attendants might wear khakis and polo shirts today, when the airline started back in the seventies, they wore hot pants and go-go boots as part of a look one can only assume was inspired by Nancy Sinatra. Somewhat ironically, Southwest recently told a college student she was too scantily dressed to board the plane and another passenger was required to cover herself in a blanket because of her skimpy attire. Go figure!
In the book, we see uniforms by Richard Tyler for Delta, Kate and Andy Spade for Song, Julien Macdonald for British Airways, Christian Lacroix for Air France, and more. Which designer—who hasn’t done so—would be an ideal choice to dream something up for the attendants?
Prada is a no-brainer for flight-attendant uniforms. Some of the earlier collections could have easily walked off one runway and onto the other with very few alterations!
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