Zambesi style
Background
Founded in 1979 by husband and wife team Elisabeth and Neville Findlay, Zambesi is one of the four New Zealand labels - the so-called "New Zealand Four" - that showed at the 1999 London Fashion Week, and in so doing established New Zealand as a serious player on the international fashion stage. To put it simply, the company is blueblood New Zealand fashion aristocracy.
In accepting the commission, Zambesi was setting off down a well-trodden path. While it's true that "Fashion borrows from uniforms, and uniforms borrow from fashion, but designers of fashion rarely design uniforms" (as John Seabrook put it in the New Yorker ), there are exceptions, and for good historic reasons, the airline industry is one of them. Almost as soon as the first air hostesses (later flight Attendants) left the ground in 1930, their job became associated with style and glamour. In the 1930s and 40s attendants usually wore military-inspired outfits. In the 1950s and 60s, their uniforms mirrored the high fashion of the time - decorative hats and tailored suits. By the 1960s and 1970s, renowned fashion designers were designing directly for the airline industry: Dior designed uniforms for SAS, Balenciaga for Air France, and Valentino and Ralph Lauren for TWA.
More recently, despite record-high fuel prices and the ruinous effects of savage competition, at least five international carriers (besides Air New Zealand) have given their flight attendants multi-million dollar designer makeovers. In 2003 Qantas unveiled its new outfits, designed by Peter Morrissey; in 2004 British Airways unveiled its new uniforms, created by Julien Macdonald, who lists Nicole Kidman and Elizabeth Hurley amongst his clientele. The following year Air France unveiled its first uniform makeover in 17 years, sticking with its tradition of collaborating with famous French fashion houses by hiring Christian Lacroix. (Air France had previously worked with Dior and Balenciaga.)
