Grooming tips for the 1950s flight attendant

Cheerful Thursday morning greetings, my sweet dears, thank you all very much for your lovely, supportive comments on my last post regarding our upcoming move. Today marks the start of the official one week countdown until the big day itself arrives.

As you can imagine, this week has been a three-ring circus of activity, with scarcely a second for my husband and I to stop and catch our breath. Though we're certainly teaming up for some tasks, generally speaking (during these last few pre-move days), he's tending to jobs that need to be done outside the house, and I'm going at the speed of light inside the home.

Even at my busiest though, it's hard not to steal away a few quick moments to recharge my batteries and uncover delightful vintage images and inspiration (maybe it's just me, but the day doesn't quite feel complete if I have devoted at least part of it to my love of the past).

Earlier this week, I spotted a recently uploaded image on one of my favourite old school image filled Flickr streams, that made me smile ear-to-ear. Not only was it bursting with yesteryear charm, but it was beyond fitting, given that I'll be zipping through the air on a plane myself next week.

These days the rules and requirements involved with becoming flight attendant are significantly different then they were during the earlier decades of aviation (and, over all, this is a good thing, because there's much less discrimination involved with the candidate selection process and flight attendants themselves have more rights within the scope of their job).

However, I'm always a sucker for a great list of vintage "dos and don'ts" when it comes to any profession, and as the list in the image below clearly demonstrates, there was no shortage of such points for airline stewardesses (as they were often called back then) to adhere to during the 1950s.

{A lovely vintage flight attendant from 1957, smartly attired as members of her profession were required to look during the golden era of airline travel. Image via alsis35 on Flickr.}

From the expectation that one would (or perhaps had to) wear a "well fitted girdle" to the fact that platinum nail polish was out the question, it's fascinating to look back at this list of dos and don't and think about what airline hostesses of days gone by had to comply with in order to keep their jobs.

I'm certainly no expert on the requirements of being a modern day flight attendant, but I think it's safe to say - while standards regarding certain elements of one's appearance are still in place - the rules have relaxed substantially (for better or worse, depending on your own take on this topic).

Like many of us, I long for the days of airline travel when passengers and staff alike were better attired (I for one always dress up to a certain extent when I'm traveling by plane, but have observed that few other passengers tend to any more, save perhaps for the occasional businessman in a suit and tie or well-to-do lady jet setting off to some exotic location), and perhaps (as I like to imagine at least) friendlier.

Long gone are the fabulous forties, fifties, and early sixties (think Pan Am era) though, and with them a certain kind of airline travel glamour that will likely never be recaptured again outside of a Hollywood studio.

Nevertheless, when I board our flight next Thursday, I'll be thinking about old school flight attendants and passengers alike. Daydreaming that perhaps we’ll somehow fly through a warp in the space-time continuum and transport back to the mid-twentieth century.

Ridiculously wishful thinking, I know, but hey, a rather knackered vintage loving gal can always hope!