Welcome to HOW RETRO, which is all about the 20th century - films, fashion, TV, people, popular culture and more.
Like Lot's Wife, we just can't help looking back...
Aus. Gov. airline TAA kept the same uniform from 1946 to '64. TAA Museum
American stewardess, circa 49/50. Image by Chaimers Butterfield
They are called air hostess, cabin crew, stewardesses or flight attendants - these glorified 'waitresses of the sky' who must wheel the drinks trolleys, ensure the seatbelts are fastened, assuage the irascible, soothe the jangled nerves of the fear-of-flying crowd and just generally attend to the comfort and safety of all on board.
As a career, 'Air hostess" always had a patina of glamour attached, despite the sometimes gruelling work on board and this was particularly true in the 20th century when air travel was a new and exciting adventure that few people could afford.
Pub sign in Tollerton, England.Image by Kate Jewel
From an aesthetic point of view, the job was demanding. An air hostess was the face of the company and as the representative. who reflected the image and ethos of the airline she had to look just right...fashionable and attractive, conservative but not too conservative, friendly but not too friendly, not too short, not too tall and as the times changed, so too did the air hostess uniforms.
The Changing Look of the Air Hostess
In the beginning, when air travel was a bit rough around the edges, air hostess outfits were designed to reflect conservative stability and inspire confidence, so they were created along the lines of armed forces or nurses uniforms - 'serious'. The first US air hostess, Ellen Church started the whole air hostess ball rolling when she managed to convince the powers that be at United Airlines that passengers would feel comforted by a nurse on board (prior to that, the only flight attendants were usually a male first officer or pilot). In fact one early airline; Eastern Airlines, did use actual nurses uniforms. They reasoned people would be comforted by the fact that if they crashed there would at least be the suggestion of medical assistance at the ready.
The first US air hostess, Ellen Church, in a United Airlines plane in 1930. Smithsonian. The uniform was bottle green,
As time wore on, airlines clued on the sex-appeal value of their female cabin staff and gradually the military-like formality gave way to something a little sexier and more fashionable. Designers, milliners and department store advisors were called on by some companies as early as the late 30s to spice up the uniforms. However, there was a delicate line there and a semblance of calm respectability had to be maintained, so the girls couldn't dress too wildly...'smart conservative' was the theme.
It seemed the industry was keen to overlay a kind of glamorous 'availability' upon it's female flight attendants. Up until the 80s, there was a restriction on married women becoming an air hostesses in the US. If a single hostess marriage, she was fired. In addition to this demand, a hostess had to be a petite size and retire at either 32 or 35, depending on the airline. In the 70s and 80s these sexist discriminations were fought by the flight attendants union, which had been battling for improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions since the late 40s.
Getting Groovier
While the conservative 'official uniform' look still lingered into the post-war decades, towards the sixties, designers began creating distinctive high fashion looks for individual airlines. These included such trend-setting luminaries as Pierre Cardin (Pakistan Airlines), Mary Quant (Courtline), Balmain (Singapore Airlines) Valentino and Ralph Laurent (TWA) Designer and Bill Blass (American Airlines). In the late 60s, Oleg Casssini created an ultra modern outfit for Air West (the airline was purchased later by Howard Hughes) with a polyester side-buttoned jacket, knee high boots and a funky mini skirt.
Oleg Cassini's design for Air West
PSA grooves it up
In general, Australian airlines were a little more conservative and while outfits in the 60's and 70s departed from the standard efficient-looking, crisp white uniform look, they weren't quite as radical as the US. Qantas Australia, for example, drew the line at the mini-skirt and while they revved up the uniforms, the hem lines still sat relatively low:
Qantus 1964 to '69. Image from Qantus website.
Up, Up and Away, with TAA, the Friendly way to Fly...
Singapore Girls
Although it was heavily criticised for being sexist, one of the most successful advertising campaigns, especially in the Asia Pacific region, was the 1972 Singapore Girls concept for Singapore Airlines - Singapore girl, you're a great way to fly- which featured attractive hostesses in Asian themed ultra-feminine sarongs and exuding inviting, beaming smiles. They were the hostess with the mostest and it's an image that the airline still retains.
Seductive Singapore Girls
Vintage Air France Uniforms.
TAA (Trans Australia Airlines) uniforms circa 1970. Image from Museum Victoria.
The new non-sexist Qantas image 1974 to '85. Image from Qantus website
As airline travel became more commonplace and mass marketed, the air hostess lost a little of her mystique and glamour. In the history of the airlines, she went from 'serious' nurse to conservative hostess to model fashion plate and now, sharing the occupation with a plethora of male stewards, sits somewhere between only faintly glamorous and an underpaid work horse who must be well versed in public relations/security/hospitality and first aid.
In case anyone doesn't know what they are, paper dolls are stiff cardboard figures, usually dressed in underwear, which children have fun dressing (attaching the clothes with paper tabs or magnets) from a selected wardrobe that comes with the doll. Paper dolls have been around in various guises for hundreds of years and surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, they seem to be gaining a resurgance in popularity in recent times.
Antique paper doll..Image from wiki Commons
The precursor to the paper dolls that came with a wardrobe and tabs first appeared in 18th centuryEurope and were chiefly designed to entertain adults. Called jumping jacks or in French, patins, they had jointed limbs so they could form poses and came with a wardrobe of elaborate clothes. However, it was in the 20th century that paper dolls really took off, when they were mass produced for the children's market and sometimes women's magazines and periodicals would include a paper doll section for the kids to enjoy..
Old paper dolls, still in tact, are of course rare and highly collectable to boot. Few children would have received a paper doll present and not ripped it apart through wear and tear. I used to love them myself as a kid and often played at being a mini-designer - I would conceive and make my own clothes for the dolls from the colours and patterns in magazines. It was hours of fun! 'Specially on a rainy day.
My new discovery, the website Paper Dolls Review, has some really great paper doll books, including vintage-themed ones, such as the happy Ken and Barbie-like 50s couple in the one below...
Image from Paperdoll Review
Or....High Fashions, by Jim Howard, which recreates the glamorous styles of 1947. I think they'd make a good gift for the gal who has everything.
Vita Sackville West was an iconic, eccentric figure of the early 20th century. Born in 1892 she was the grandaughter of a famous Spanish dancer, Pepito who had had an intimate liason with the 2nd Lord Sackville, Lional Sackville West. Their daughter Victoria Sackville West married her cousin, the 3rd Baron Sackville, Lionel Edward Sackville West and together they produced little Vita. Phew.
The newly arrived little Sackville West was christened Victoria too but to save confusion with her mother she was universally known as 'Vita'. Naturally, as the daughter of an English aristocrat, her upbringing was one of cultured privilege, though as a female, she was unable to inherit the family home Knole House in Kent, after the death of her father. This was no small loss, as you can observe in the picture below...
Vita Sackville West's childhood home, 'Knole House' in Kent
A Serious Writer
Vita's interest in poetry began in childhood and at seventeen she had a volume of dramatic verse published privately - Chatterton. Throughout her life she published several more volumes of poetry, thirteen novels, including The Edwardians and All Passion Spent . In addition to this, West wrotebooks on history, biographical works and from 1947 wrote a regular column called In Your Garden for the Observer. Though she may have been on the wild side, she was no literary slouch and in 1946 was given a Companion of Honour for her services to literature.
Notoriety Vita sackville West stood out in a crowd, as much physically as through her antics. She was strikingly tall...over six foot, which in the early 20s was a particularly noticable departure form the norm. Her clothes too, were flamboyant and original and she was among the first to paint her nails in daring, vivid colours.
At twenty-one she marrried politician Harold Nicolson, though the latter revealed quite early in the relationship that he enjoyed sexual relationships with other males. However, this proved no impediment to the longevity of their marriage and they remained together, despite many affairs on both sides of the union. Nor did it prevent them from producing two children together - Nigel, who like his father became a writer and politician and Benedict, an art historian.
Virginia Woolf
Vita and Harold were outer satellites of the Bloomsbury Group, a gathering of free-thinking Bohemian imtellectuals, who refused to live by the strict Victorian moral codes of their era. Virginia Woolf was a member, as was economist Maynard Keynes, critic Clive Bell and biographer Lytton Strachey.
Although West had lesbian affairs with several women throughout her life, it was her romantic liason with Virginia Woolf in the late 20s that garnered the most notoriety. Woolf is said to have modelled the main character for her novel Orlando in her lover, Vita Sackville West and indeed, West's son Nigel described the book as "the longest and most charming love-letter in literature". Yet her most enduring affair was probably with Violet Kepple, the daughter of Edward VII's mistress, Alice Kepple, whom she had known since early adolescence. Rumor has it at one stage the pair eloped together to Paris and were only parted when their respective husbands trudged over there and persuaded them to return.
West died in 1962- post-WW2 she had become something of a recluse, devoting herself to her beloved interests - gardening and writing.
Straw, felt and velvet appliqued cloche. Victoria &Albert Museum
The cloche was to the 1920s what the snood was to the '40s, only more so. Although it was not the only style of headwear around at the time, it's the one most associated with the period. Called a cloche because of its distinctive bell shape (cloche is French for bell), this hat sat low on the head, shading the eyes and giving the wearer an intriguing allure...
As a bonus, the quirky cloche added a little extra height as the top of the hat was rather bulbous - it was a style which complimented the short, bobbed hairstyles of the era and sometimes the hair was actually almost completely hidden beneath the cloche.
The 1920s collided with the emergence of the Art Deco period and many of the hats incorporated some of the characteristic design elements into the cloche, with the use of bold lines, deco appliques and Aztec zig zag seaming in greens, pinks, creams and blacks.
Creative
It was a very creative period from a fashion perspective and milliners were inspired by exotic locations and vampish fantasies. Some sought out stylistic inspiration from the Far East...Egypt, China, Japan and Russia. Apart from the ubiquitous cloche, headresses included tiaras, turbans, silk headbands, toques, kokoshniks and scarves elaborately knotted at one side.
Just about everyone wore a hat in the 1920s and it would have been considered very poor taste to be seen out in public without something on your head. This was particularly true for men, as tipping your hat for a lady was standard practice.
Aw...cuter than a puppy chewing on a pink fluffy slipper, funkier than a jazz singer in a smoke-infested basement - the Fiat 500 is pretty darn sexy...
In fact, the contemporary version of the little motor car was not only voted *most sexy* a while back by the Top Gear crew but also by evercar. com's female voters for it's lovable interior. The Fiat Bambino's sex appeal is obvious. Cuter than this---------->
Fiat 500 History
Fiat 500's technically date back to 1936, beginning with the Topolino(Italian for mouse) and at that time was the smallest car produced in the world. The Topolino lasted, relatively unchanged, until 1955, when a new, completely different version of the Fiat 500 was introduced in '57 and went on to become the cult-worshipped Italian icon we know and love today.
The Nuova (new) 500 was designed by Dante Giacosa, who had earlier come up with the Fiat 600 and switched the engine from the front, where it had sat in the Topolino, to the rear, in order to maximise space. Changes were made to the design over the next decade or so, including a bigger engine and in '65 the Fiat 500 F boasted a 19hp engine and standard opening doors, as opposed to the old 'suicide' ones. Further changes were made right up until 1975 when production on the 500's stopped..apart from the station wagon version, the Fiat 500 k, which finished in '77.
Over its lifetime Fiat sold over 3.6 million of the Fiat 500's and in in 2007, a new Nouva front wheel version was launched, perhaps because it was the 50th anniversary of the old Bambino and also to capitalise on the flood of retro popularity reinvented older cars, such as the mini and renovated Beetle, were enjoying. In 1957 it was the perfect solution to overcrowded Italian roads and small parking spaces and now, all that applies but add fuel economy as a consideration.
Wow, that is pretty nice
What the Reviewers Said...
Modern pastiche of arguably Fiat's most iconic city car. Sassy looks wear thin in a downpour on the Hume Highway, but it's great to drive and staggering value. Unlike the Mini. ~ Top Gear, Australia
It gets more looks than a Ferrari F430 and costs but a fraction of the price. The Fiat 500, may just be the coolest car on the planet right now~ caradvice.com
The looks are so wonderful, in fact, that you probably won’t care about the drawbacks. But there are a few. The headlights are hopeless, you really can’t see what’s coming from the left at oblique junctions, the engine is defeated by hills, and the ride, thanks to the short wheelbase, is awfully bouncy. Intolerably so, occasionally....
But, my God, you come away from an experience behind the wheel absolutely loving it. It’s cheeky and nonthreatening without being pathetic. It’s practical without being boring. It’s well priced as well. And there’s something else...
It was born in the backstreets of Naples and, thanks to a burning ambition, it’s shaken off its lowly born tags. Now it’s mixing it with the others of the jet set in St Moritz. Ring any bells?~Jeremy Clarkson
Winston Churchill wore them, as did Groucho Marx, Orson Welles, Fred Astaire and Karl Lagerfield....
Stylish or silly?
The world is divided on the bow tie issue, however as it's a relatively rare sight to see a guy trucking down the street in a big beautiful bow tie, I guess the anti-bow tie forces are out in front. There are some who are willing to swim against the tide but are they just Art Gallery Directors, foppish ham actors and dust-covered, retired Latin professors...?
A young Orson Welles
Not really..bow ties can look swish, elegant, manly and stylish. The secret is to wear them with confidence and not sheepishly...too self-conscious of the eccentric piece of fabric knotted around your neck. BT's are also worn by the seriously fashion conscious. Have a peek at Walking ART, who has that boy-reporter/Jimmy Olsen look thing going.
The Origin of the Bow Tie
Marty, from Texas, circa 1960s
Bow ties began with the Prussian war in the 17th Century. Croatian mercenaries used a scarf tied round their necks to hold their their shirt opening togeteher - they must have looked good because the French fashion elite adopted this 'neck tied' style and called it a cravat. From the cravat came the necktie and the bowtie. (wiki)
Traditionally, a bow tie is tied by hand, although modern versions may be pinned on or held together by an adjustable elasticised band. They also come in different lengths, according to neck size, though for formal wear, fixed length is desirable to provide that neat look.
Fabrics range from silk, linen, cotton, polyester (goes with the elasticized ones) and as far as design goes, the sky's the limit - big, small, flat, bulky and in checks, spots, tartans, florals, geometric designs etc, etc. Bow ties were particularly popular in the 1920s...they looked so good with a boater.
Alexis Mabille...definitely manly
Hip French designer, Alexis Mabille has created some uber-cool, playful bow ties...
Corgi Toys Batmobile, 1966
I have it on good authority that the Corgi 1966 batmobile is worth investigating. This British Batmobile is a pretty schmick item and highly collectable, especially if it's a first issue, which if in good nick can sell in the high hundreds and a thousand or more if it comes with the box. Collectors are often aging Babyboomers reaching out poignantly for their childhood toys and look upon the Batmobile as an iconic memory from their youth.
inspired by exotic locations and vampish fantasies. Some sought out stylistic inspiration from the Far East...Egypt, China, Japan and Russia. Apart from the ubiquitous cloche, headresses included tiaras, turbans, silk headbands, toques, kokoshniks and scarves elaborately knotted at one side. 
Just about everyone wore a hat in the 1920s and it would have been considered very poor taste to be seen out in public without something on your head. This was particularly true for men, as tipping your hat for a lady was standard practice.
