For nearly as long as commercial air travel has been possible, flight attendants have pushed back on policies surrounding their appearance and what they have to wear. It used to be about miniskirts and hot pants; today it’s about tattoos, comfort, and gender-neutral clothing. No matter the specifics, the shifts in airline uniforms reflect shifts in culture, and if you look to the skies, you can see that change happening yet again. In recent years—and even this past month—airlines worldwide have increasingly been loosening once-strict appearance guidelines and dress code policies to become more inclusive.
The first uniform debate
In the 1950s and ’60s, when the profession was predominantly held by women and the clientele was mostly male business travelers, airlines used bright, stylish uniforms as a marketing tool. Flight attendants were often made to wear miniskirts, hot pants, and go-go boots, which weren’t practical for performing the job. Their looks were also policed. “In addition to airline requirements that they be single, childless, and younger than 32 to 35 . . . stewardesses were subject to random and demoralizing weight checks, girdle checks, makeup checks, and more,” Nell McShane Wulfhart, author of The Great Stewardess Rebellion (Doubleday; April 2022), told Afar in a previous interview.
As she explains in her book, flight attendants formed the Stewardesses for Women’s Rights union in 1972 and started to fight against the inequities.
That’s when things started to change. “Women flight attendants filed lawsuits against their employers,” says Dan Bubb, a professor and aviation history expert at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He explains that another problem was the contrast between what male and female flight attendants were made to wear. As a result, airlines dropped the height and weight restrictions and modified uniforms to make them more practical, yet still professional, for male and female flight attendants. Still, the outfits were often gendered, with skirts and blazers for women and suits for men.
Tattoos take center stage
As of this month, for example, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) allows flight attendants and other guest-facing staff members to have visible tattoos while in uniform. The airline joins a list of other carriers that have made that policy shift, including Alaska, United, and Virgin Atlantic. In a July 1 social media post, SAS wrote that the changes, which include permission to wear sneakers, are “part of our commitment to a modern, inclusive, and welcoming environment.”
As with the end of the 1960s hyper-sexualized outfits, this change was catalyzed by arguments of discrimination. In 2019, Air New Zealand was the first carrier worldwide to allow for out-in-the-open ink, provided the tattoo was not offensive, and its announcement came after pressure from culture and rights advocates who said the previous tattoo ban discriminated against potential Māori employees for not allowing them to display sacred Tā moko markings, which may be inked on their face or arms.
Similarly, in 2021, a labor arbitrator ruled that it was discriminatory for Air Canada to prevent uniform wearers from displaying tattoos that aren’t on their face or neck and don’t refer to nudity, hatred, violence, drugs, alcohol, discrimination, or harassment.
“Air Canada accepts this ruling as it provides clarity with respect to this matter. Social norms evolve, and as a consequence, corporate policies do change over time to reflect these, so we will be updating our policy accordingly and implementing this decision,” spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick wrote in a statement at the time.
Gendered makeup and clothing rules are changing too
Similar changes have been made to other appearance rules. For example, in the past five years, carriers such as Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic announced that female flight attendants were no longer required to wear makeup. In the past two years, British Airways and Qantas announced that men could wear makeup if they wanted to. Other airlines have expanded the scope of their grooming policies to allow multiple earrings per ear, a single stud nose piercing, more hairstyle options (including long hair for men, provided it is tied back), and fingernail polish for all employees.
Other reforms have been aimed at scrapping policies on gendered uniforms. Norwegian Air and Japan Airlines are among the airlines that have axed requirements for female crew members to wear high heels. Some carriers, such as KLM and SAS, permit staff to wear sneakers, which KLM said would be more comfortable and contribute to employee well-being.
In 2022, Virgin Atlantic announced that all cabin crew, pilots, and ground staff were free to wear their choice of uniform, “no matter their gender, gender identity, or gender expression,” per a press release. In practice, it means flight attendants can choose any pieces from the uniform collection, even if it challenges traditional binary clothing norms.
In a recent Fortune article, Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said, “We know that some of the stuff we do is not pleasing to everyone all the time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t right. It ensures that everyone is welcome, can be their best, and perform at Virgin Atlantic. I know some people will find it too progressive, and that’s okay. Society will catch up.”
Alaska, another carrier that allows staff the flexibility to choose a uniform they feel best in, also created optional personal-pronoun pins for team members to wear. The announcement was made after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on behalf of a nonbinary employee about the carrier’s uniform policy, which, it wrote, required the employee “to adhere to an inflexible uniform policy that forces employees to conform to rigid gender stereotypes.”
“This is an important step on a continued journey to be more inclusive, and there’s more work ahead,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement at the time. “We will continue to look at our policies, programs, and practices to ensure we live our values and create a place where everyone feels they belong.”
