#0019 Air hostess uniforms
Fashion & Textiles
The collector: Cliff Muskiet, Purser with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The collection: Female flight attendant uniforms.
The story behind the collection…
Ever since early childhood I have been fascinated by civil aviation! The first flight I made that I can remember was from New York to Amsterdam in 1970. I was 5 years old. I slept during the whole flight and when we arrived in Amsterdam, I was disappointed because I couldn't remember anything about the flight. I began to draw airplanes and started to cut airplane pictures out of travel magazines. As a child I knew I wanted to fly. I collected everything about airplanes. Every month I would go to Amsterdam and visit the airline offices and come home with bags filled with postcards and posters.
My collection began in 1980, when I was given an old KLM uniform from 1971. My mother was a nurse and she had a colleague who also worked as a part-time stewardess. In 1982 I got two more uniforms from Dutch charter airlines. From 1982 till 1993 I didn't do much to obtain more uniforms, something I really regret now because I could have had many more. Ten years later, in 1993, I obtained some old Ghana Airways uniforms whilst I was in Accra working for KLM. After that I started to contact other airlines. Most of my uniforms were obtained between 1993 and today. I now have 991 different uniforms from 430 different airlines. Some more are on their way so I hope to reach 1000 soon.
I am interested in uniforms because I like civil aviation and everything to do with it. When I think of an airplane, I think of a stewardess, when I think of a stewardess I think of a uniform and when I think of a uniform I want to have it! The funny thing is if my uniforms were worn by hostesses on a ship or train I wouldn’t be interested in them at all.
Male uniforms all look the same: jacket, pants, plain shirt and a tie and are mostly dark blue and quite boring, whereas in the ladies uniforms you can see the changes in fashion through the years. There are so many different items: jackets, skirts, blouses, dresses, pants, vests, cardigans and hats and lots of different colors. I love the 1970s psychedelic patterns and color combinations, the big pointy collars and synthetic fabrics! It’s the great variety of accessories that make the airhostess uniforms so different. The blouses usually have colorful prints, stripes, flowers, dots or airline logos and the scarves often have beautiful designs. Some uniforms have a hat. I love uniform hats! They are like the icing on the cake and make a uniform complete.
The fact that the uniforms are very hard to get makes my hobby even more special and unique. You can't buy them in a shop or order them online. I spend a lot of time trying to obtain them and sometimes even travel abroad to get them. There are not many people that collect stewardess uniforms and - as far as I know - I have the biggest collection in the whole world. I am really proud of that.
I keep all my uniforms at home. It would feel really strange to have them stowed somewhere else. They are like my little babies and you don't put your babies away, do you? They are kept in closets, containers, garment bags, boxes and suitcases in two special rooms. When you have to stow so many uniforms you get very handy using all the space you have in your apartment. I am very fortunate to live in a big apartment with three bedrooms so I have lots of space. If I ever want to move I need at least three bedrooms otherwise I can't stow my uniforms! On the containers I put little notes with the names of the airline uniforms that are in there so that I don't have to open everything to find a particular one.
All my uniforms can be seen on my website Uniform Freak. My website is like an online museum. As soon as I obtain a new uniform for my collection, I take photos of it and update my website so that the rest of the world can enjoy it too.
At the moment 24 of my uniforms can be seen in the TAM Aviation Museum in Sao Carlos in Brazil. For the exhibits I always use duplicates. They are like my little babies and I would go crazy if a uniform got lost or damaged!
There are two KLM uniforms that have a sentimental value for me; the very first uniform that was given to me (KLM 1971) and the one that was worn from 1975 till 1982 which reminds me of the many trips I made to the USA with my mother at that time. I remember being fascinated by the hat that was worn by the stewardesses - it looked like a mushroom! Now I fly for KLM myself.
My hobby is never ending. Airlines come and go and uniforms keep changing. There are a few that I would particularly love to add to my collection: Air France from the 70s and Japan Airlines from the 70s and 80s. I have a Japan Airlines hat from the 80s, but the uniform is still missing so it would be great to find that. To be honest, all uniforms that I don't have yet are more than welcome!
I think about uniforms the whole day and I always keep my eyes open to find more for my collection. Am I obsessed? Maybe but it makes me very happy and that’s what life is all about, right?
For further information, descriptions and detail shots visit Cliff's website Uniform Freak where you can view all 991 of the uniforms currently in his collection.
All images © Cliff Muskiet and used with his kind permission.
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Cliff,
This is an amazing collection and a superb record of airline uniforms. I'm fascinated by them too. I'm from India and there are many airlines there with very beautiful and colourful uniforms. Air India, Indian, Jet Airways, KingFisher, Sahara, Spicejet & IndiGo are the main airline companies there. Maybe you could try adding their uniforms to your collection, it'll be even more interesting!
Happy collecting!
Jyothsna
someone help him to get 9 more uniforms please