Air New Zealand Uniforms Raise Eyebrows

Friday 22nd of January 2010 07:01:13 PM

Uniforms are normally fairly sedate because they serve two purposes. The first purpose is to provide comfortable and practical clothing that is durable. The second purpose is to make it easy to identify a worker as being a representative of a particular business. Plenty of employees wear uniforms that also serve as promotional clothing.

Not all uniforms are sedate though as the new Air New Zealand uniforms prove. Designed for ground and cabin crews, the new uniforms include stripes, swirls, florals, and bright colors. The new styles were designed by Trelise Cooper and are to be first worn publicly when the airlines rolls out its new fleet of jets.

The response to the new uniforms has been mixed. Some people call them hideous while others, like the Germans, consider the clothing to be attractive. No one really goes overboard in their compliments though, but Air New Zealand doesn’t care. The company doesn’t care that so many New Zealanders oppose the new style or that the UK Daily Mail newspaper described the floral dress as one of the worst among airline uniforms.

One of the objections is the choice of colors. For example, there is a woman’s dress in a pink and black floral that many think is unattractive. Other colors include green aqua, and blue but most of the time these colors are used as dashes of color in the overall uniform scheme. There might be a bright aqua scarf matched with a dark suit or a green and black striped tie for men worn with a blue and white striped shirt.

As far as being promotional clothing, it is certainly doing its job. The new uniforms have gained the airlines plenty of attention. That is probably why the head of Air New Zealand, Rob Fyfe, is an unabashed supporter of the new style. The bright pink color used in some of the uniforms has been called more suitable for drag queen clothing. But Fyfe says, I have been proud to be able to find something pink to wear in my wardrobe every day this week, from ties to shirts to even underwear, believe it or not.” So this means the Air New Zealand uniforms are here to stay.