NEW US Airways FA Uniforms

flyingsteel

Newbie
Feb 26, 2007
4
0
RE: new FA UNIFORMS....

It's important to keep in mind that the uniforms viewed at the presentations are prototypes...None of them are a guarantee that they will make it into the final product....The presentation was done to show ALL of the designs and give the people who will be wearing them, a chance to give feedback to the designer...It is possible that some of the pieces viewed will not make the final cut...


All who attended were given evaluation forms to give their opinions...for instance, the sweater twin sets came in 2 shades of blue...if a FA like a particular color over another, she/he was asked to specify which one's she/he prefered...If they find that one color or style was poorly received, they may not make that one at all.


It's true that the female suit coat and pants from a distance look simular...But actually, the differences are all about the way they are constructed...The female suit coat is more tailored, it's a two-button (one on top of the other--not double breasted) coat. It's constructed in 2 pieces (so to speak). Rather than 1 long pieve of material for each panel, it had one piece on top and one on bottom. So there is a seam at the waist. This makes for a very tailored feminine look. It's shorter than the "man style" we wear now. It has 5 pockets...2 on outside, and 2 more on inside, then 1 small "pen" pocket. It had a navy ribbon (satin) strip on the sleeves.

The 2 piece suit someone refered to is actually a 2 piece dress...The top can be worn with the skirt or the pant. It was designed after the old Piedmont beige 2 piece dress that everyone raves about...It's very retro and on the right person can look nice.


The pant is a flat front pant that sets a little lower than the old style that goes up to your boobies...It's very flattering. Most women don't realize that pleated pants actually draw attention to that area and can accentuate you (make you look bigger). Also by lowering the waist of the pant, again, you deaccentuate your hips and will make anyone look more flattering (smaller). It did have hidden elastic in the waiste at the pocket area so there was some give.


The skort did not fit the girl who was wearing it very well so it did not give a very good showing. It was a little small for her. Not her fault as ALL the uniforms were CUSTOM made and some of the models that wore them were not originally scheduled to wear them. The skort, looks like a skirt with a center pleat from a distance...It's as long as the skirt.


SCARVES...One scarf was a white base, square shape with little planes on it in all the "heritage" colors (colors of previous airlines that make up US now). It had a square outline in a blue and then the planes were teal, burnt orange, and some other blues. It's looked really nice. very stylish. The other one was a rectangle, Long scarf called the "swoosh" scarf. It was a navy base and had, I believe one other color of blue on it. It coordinated with the other blues from the twinset. it could be worn with just about anything although. Scarves are optional.

The shirt colors for women ( and men I think) were a white base with heritage stripes. Heritage colors is the term being refered to as the colors from the previous airlines... It had small, thin, stripes in those teal, orange, blue colors of our predicessors. There was also a blue shirt. I really don't know how to describe the blue. It wasn't a common color. It's a tasteful color that coordinates with the navy. It appeared to me to be a "heather" blue. But I could be wrong about it. The other shirt was a white shirt with a really flattering cut for a woman. The color was smaller and designed to "lift up" a little. On the inside of the color, there was a band of the "heritage stripe". It was a nice accent. It could also be worn outside the skirt, skort and pants and look good. Had was slightly shorter than a normal button down.


The "HOT" dress is really just that. It will look good on gals with a figure, short or tall. Which I think is great to give gals who have worked hard to maintain a nice figure and want to look feminine a dress that gives them exactly that. My best description of the colar is a "french" blue. It has a zip front that goes down only to just below the crotch area. So the zip doesn't go the whole way down. It has a nice color and with a scarf it looks very classy. There is a privacy placket across the front chest in case the zipper accidently came down. It seemed to be 2 layers of material so you didn't see bulk at the seams. It was a very nice construction.

I think those of you who are worried about the bigger ladies wearing it, don't need to worry. It will look good on certain sizes. So let's just give everyone credit for being able to pick out something that will look good on themselves.

Some of those who critisize plus size women and what they wear, would critisize them no matter what they wear. If you are not plus size then you haven't walked in their shoes. So please be nice about your comments. Your negative comments only contribute to the problem. You aren't helping anyone...(and that's my 2 cents about that){no, I'm not a plus size woman, I'll be ordering the HOT blue dress. I just think the negativity on these blogs sometimes sux}


The Sweater Twin Sets were in 2 colors. One was that blue I described above about the shirt. The other was a powder blue. I think it was a round neck short sleeve sweater that you could wear over it a long sleeve cardigan. you could wear the cardigan in the opposite color or same. Each sweater had a band at the sholders (and neck I think) of the other color. So they could be mixed and matched. It's hard to describe the band. Just have to see it to understand. The sweaters could be worn with anything...pants, skirt, skort. The cardigans I think were zippers. It had a zipper at top and bottom so you could unzip a little at the bottom. I can't remember if there was a navy cardigan. Maybe someone can help me with this.

The Vest was a longer zip vest that was kind of fuller at the sholders. So NOT at all like the old US AIR pinstripe vest. I heard that it was created to appease AW (West) FAs that wanted a vest of this type. Don't know if that is true.

I think there was also a ZIP Jacket in navy for women. There was so much to see that it was impossible to remember it all.

Aprons...I missed this presentation so I only saw them briefly. I believe there was a navy one that looks like the current style we have now where it's straight across the top, not a "V". then there was a "wrap apron". It was like a smock or vest that had arm holes that you put on like a jacket or vest and then it wraped around and tied. I didn't get it really. IT reminded me too much of the women serving at a cafeteria or perhaps a cleaning lady. I don't know the idea behind it. maybe there was a lot of people requesting it. Personally I'd like a half-apron that only covers from my waist down and is straight. Like you see at a fine restaurant.

MATERIALS--FABRICS I felt the sweater and tried it on. It was made of polyester and acrylic. It was soft and not scratchy at all. The shirt materials were nice and I think to achieve the best look, they should be lightly starched. The pants and suit coat and the 2 piece dress felt okay. Until I get it on my body, I can't really give an opinion. The wear testing will begin soon and after some use, we may find them changing it or keeping it exactly as is. The models said that they had washed everything themselves and were happy so far with how they came out of the wash.

There was no outerwear displayed. It will come later.

I'm sorry I don't know much about the men's looks. I was really conentrating on the women.

AGAIN, I WANT TO REMIND EVERYONE THAT I WAS TOLD THESE ARE PROTOTYPES. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THESE DESIGNS ARE FOR SURE.

Someone asked about the vendor. It's called TWIN HILL and is a division of the Men's Wearhouse. I met and spent some time speaking with someone from there. I think anything will be better than what we have.

ALTERATIONS. There was some mention that each FA would receive a gift card for either $20 or $25 to use at Men's Wearhouse. It could be used for alterations or to puchase something from them. Alterations were encouraged by Stan Herman. He even commented that the he recommended the skirts be shorter than what they were wearing.

If I forgot anything or got something wrong, I apologize. I will correct myself if I find out something different.