Thirty years after Bollywood designer Bhanu Athaiya styled an Air India calendar just before she went on to collect an Oscar for designing the costumes for the movie Gandhi, another Bollywood designer has created Air India crew couture that melds with the airline’s new branding and identity.
The crew couture, which was revealed earlier this week, is Air India’s attempt to move towards contemporary attire for its crew, without moving too far away from its roots as India’s first national carrier. The airline’s chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) Campbell Wilson says Air India is rebranding and the airline’s new livery and uniforms are part of that rebranding strategy.
One of the most unusual looks that designer Manish Malhotra has designed for the female cabin and cockpit crew is the modern saree pantsuit in three quintessential Indian shades — red, aubergine and gold. Pants worn with a minimal tailored blouse, with an option to top it with a jacket, and a dupatta or fabric draped like a saree pallu defines Malhotra’s vision for 21st century Air India, which is back in the Tata stable.
The crew of A350 aircraft will be sporting the new uniforms to begin with. Designer Manish Malhotra says that the uniforms feature an array of colours and timeless designs, and mirror a harmonious blend of rich Indian heritage and aesthetics with 21st-century style. It also reflects his deep-rooted fondness for traditional attire and gradients.
For the collaboration, Malhotra studied the history of the airline, from its days as not just India’s national carrier but its only carrier. “I needed to keep in mind that primarily it is a uniform and it had to be work-friendly.” His team held extensive discussions with the flight attendants and ground staff to understand their lives and their concerns.
The result is a series of ombre, red, deep red, aubergine, and gold uniforms. The female cabin crew attire features a ready-to-wear ombre saree with intricate jharokha patterns and the Vista (new Air India logo icon), paired with a comfortable blouse, blazer and pallu drape. The male cabin crew will sport a sharp black sherwani. The cockpit crew’s uniform, both for men and women, features a black double-breasted suit with a print inspired by the Vista logo.
While the saris will be paired with dual-tone black and burgundy block heels and pearl earrings, the male cabin crew’s footwear is the black brogues. The male and female pilots both have similar black brogues for footwear.
The second phase of the uniform reveal will feature the ground staff, engineers and security personnel. Campbell contends, “Air India's crew uniforms are amongst the world's most storied in aviation history, and we believe that Manish Malhotra's innovative ensemble will script an exciting new chapter for Air India's future narrative. It perfectly captures the airline’s new identity.”
Evolution of the Air India crew uniform
*It was in 1946 that Air India introduced air hostesses, largely Anglo-Indian or European women, who wore tailored European dresses and jauntily placed caps on their heads.
*In the 1960s, the saree and bouffant were introduced as part of the cabin crew uniform. Male pilots wore double-breasted suits. The move to sarees dovetailed with the Indian tourism ministry’s decision to market the country as an exotic destination to be experienced. Indian air hostesses were hired and besides the saree, the ghagra choli, with cholis that covered the waist, was introduced as uniform. The ‘air hostess saree’ (as it came to be known) in florals and paisley prints went on to influence how urban Indian women draped their sarees.
*By the 1970s, Indian women had started working in offices, and the air hostess’s professional style of draping the saree tight around themselves was mimicked by thousands of office-going women in Bombay (now Mumbai) and elsewhere. They were inspired by the glamour women like Maureen Wadia, Parmeshwar Godrej and singer Asha Puthli brought to their job as Air India air hostesses.
*By 1978, Air India had been nationalised and the era of JRD Tata, who demanded exacting standards from the crew, including how they were groomed, was officially over. The air hostesses were given a choice of wearing a saree, ghagra choli or churidaar kurta. The VVIP hostesses, who served the first-class guests, had a peculiar way of draping their saree: the drape was pinned up at the airports and allowed to flow in the cabin. In a cold climate, they would wear the pallu like a scarf over an overcoat, a look that many actresses of those times, from Vyjayanthimala, Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore, mimicked on-screen and off it.
*In the 2000s, Air India adopted a well-draped saree as part of the cabin crew uniforms, and double-breasted suits for pilots, both male and female. The male cabin crew uniform also included a suit.
But as the era changes, factors such as comfort, particularly during long-haul flights and through cumbersome security checkpoints become important. Also, a new generation of flyers has adapted to contemporary ways in which cabin crew of India’s many other airlines, such as Vistara, SpiceJet and the new kid on the block, Akasa Air (custom jackets, trousers and sneakers) dress. It was time for Air India to change, too, without eschewing the roots from which it had emerged.
From this emerged the saree pantsuit. In the times when saree gowns and ubiquitous floor-length anarkali gowns have emerged as India’s couture equivalent to the Western gown, a saree pantsuit was a statement waiting to be made by Air India’s air hostesses. Much like in the past, these air hostess' Indo-Western pantsuits will add another professional look into the various sartorial choices working Indian women make.
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