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British Airways unveils new crew uniforms from Ozwald Boateng

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Ozwald Boateng’s new uniform for British Airways staff has finally been revealed. It is the end of an era for BA’s famous Stephen Jones hat worn by female cabin crew.

(In reality, the hats have been out of service for almost two years now, thanks to the restructuring of BA’s crew fleets.)

Boateng’s ‘modern contemporary twist’ will transform uniforms for all 30,000+ British Airways employees, not just cabin crew, who wear a uniform as part of their role. It is the first new uniform since 2003, when Julien Macdonald designed the current uniform.

BA uniform Ozwald Boateng

The culmination of a four year design and testing phase has seen it trialled by 1,500 staff on the ground and in the air, on secret test flights. The fact that images only leaked late last night is a credit to how well British Airways staff have managed to keep this project under wraps.

The new uniform range was originally meant to be ready in time for BA’s Centenary celebrations in 2019. That didn’t happen, of course – and a global pandemic means the rollout was further delayed, until this week.

Boateng joins a long list of famous names to design British Airways staff uniforms. These include Paul Costelloe, Roland Klein, Baccart Weatherall, Hardy Amies.

Boateng launched his first womenswear collection in 2018 and also turned Givenchy Homme around back in the mid-noughties.

The British Airways uniform is not his first airline project. He also worked with Virgin Atlantic on their amenity kits which launched back in 2004. Of course, an amenity kit is far less complex than new uniforms for thousands of staff.

As part of the reveal, British Airways CEO and Chairman Sean Doyle said:

“Our uniform is an iconic representation of our brand, something that will carry us into our future, representing the very best of modern Britain and helping us deliver a great British original service for our customers. From the very start this has been about our people. We wanted to create a uniform collection that our people are proud to wear and with the help of over 1,500 colleagues, we are confident that we have delivered this.”

BA uniform Ozwald Boateng three piece suit

Trials and tribulations

Launching new uniforms isn’t without risk. US airlines have faced successive calls from staff to recall various new uniforms which have allegedly been causing health problems amongst crew. American Airlines and Delta have both faced criticism, whilst Alaska Airlines actually recalled its uniform in 2013 in the midst of an employee-led lawsuit, which eventually found there was no reliable evidence that the uniforms were causing health problems.

Still, uniforms are intensely personal when you consider how much they are worn by staff, who will all have their own individual preferences for style, fit and material.

To try and avoid that sort of snafu, British Airways has been trialling the uniforms to ensure that the materials are durable and comfortable. 50 workshops with staff have been held throughout the design process, from design workshops, prototype feedback and garment trials.

More than 1,500 colleagues across the airline took part in 50 workshops to help ensure the garments suitability, from design workshops to prototype feedback and garment trials, helping create an iconic collection that will stand the test of time.

Over the past six months, British Airways has been putting the uniforms to the test in secret trials on cargo flights throughout Europe as well as on engineering ferry flights. They’ve been tested in all sorts of conditions, including in deluge showers and even – I’ve been told – for a session in BA’s walk-in freezers at caterer DO&CO to trial them in sub-zero temperatures.

BA uniform Ozwald Boateng three piece suit

What options does BA’s new uniform include?

As previously mentioned, the new design re-imagines uniforms across the business, not just cabin crew. That includes pilots, engineering staff, gate agents and more:

“The collection features a tailored three-piece suit for men with regular and slim fit style trousers and dress, skirt and trouser options for women, as well as a modern jumpsuit – which is an airline first. A tunic and hijab option has also been created for the global carrier.”

According to British Airways, the new uniform features design features inspired by BA’s history as an airline:

“The airwave pattern that features across the entire uniform collection including jackets, t-shirts, buttons and ties was inspired by the movement of air over an aircraft wing. The jacquard fabric across all of the tailored garments features a variation of the airline’s iconic speedmarque.”

British Airways hasn’t yet revealed all the variants of the new uniform, which you can see throughout this article. For example, a dress is also available for female cabin crew. You can see a closer look in this video:

For now, the uniforms will remain gender-specific, although I see no reason why BA can’t adjust its policy to allow staff to wear their uniform of choice in the future, as Virgin Atlantic now does.

BA uniform Ozwald Boateng pilot

What do the crew think?

With impeccable timing, I had the unique experience of flying back from Toronto on the evening that the new uniforms leaked on Twitter, and I overheard a couple of initial reactions from crew who had seen the leaked photos as I was making my way through Heathrow Airport.

Remember that the uniform was only officially revealed this morning. All crew except the 1,500 involved in trials have only seen the uniform from the leaked images from a slideshow.

One recurring comment, particularly from female crew, is that Ozwald Boateng is a “man’s designer, so it was never going to work.” There seems to particular aversion to the idea that the uniform has been designed by Boateng, whose focus has historically been on menswear and tailoring.

I hope the crew warm to the new uniforms, because I genuinely think they are stylish and upgrade BA’s looks.

It will take time for staff to see and try on new uniforms, let alone get used to how they work in practice. For now, only 5% of BA staff have tried on the new uniforms, so it is probably too early to come to a conclusion.

Conclusion

BA’s new uniforms have been a long time coming and – frankly – a long time overdue. The baggy Julien Macdonald uniform, first introduced almost 20 years ago, has long looked dated and been need of an overhaul, so this is a welcome step in modernising and updating BA’s brand image, particularly given how important crew are to the overall impression of the airline.

My personal view is that they look smart and modern. Whilst the initially leaked photos didn’t look great, I have to say it looks a great deal better in the images supplied by British Airways which I have included throughout this article, and I am looking forward to seeing it in person.

BA’s new uniforms will gradually roll out over the coming months, with all staff due to be re-kitted by the Summer. Engineers and ground operations agents will be the first to wear them, starting in the coming weeks, whilst cabin crew, pilots and check-in agents will follow.

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Comments (153)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Andrew. says:
    6 Jan6 January 09:03

    Looking at my colleagues, looking at the new uniform. Apart from the neck scarf, they would pass as a hospital uniform dress (red piping for matron). Bet they are made from the kind of polyester that can be boil washed then almost stand up by itself too.

    There’s always a bit of “feedback” when it comes to new uniforms. Years ago (in banking), our directorate head ordered managers to “verify that staff were ordering a suitable size of uniform”. Turned out some of the nimble fingered girls were tired of the poor stitching and fit and were ordering the more expensive to supply size 28 skirts then running up their own tailored fit size 10s from the generous amount of material.

    Time to lose the tie for the men. The pattern would have worked well on the inside of an open the collar instead.

    • Rhys says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:09

      When was the last time you were in a hospital? 🙂

    • Ian says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:47

      A hospital uniform? Are you for real?!

      • Andrew J says:
        6 Jan6 January 14:53

        Don’t all nurses wear a uniform?

        • Jill Kinkell says:
          6 Jan6 January 15:10

          Most Scottish staff wear an NHS uniform ,whether nurse, Physio , lab staff or porter. Not the first time I had to have a quiet word with staff to get fitted with an appropriate size uniform. Let’s hope someone at BA casts their eye over fitting .

  • yonasl says:
    6 Jan6 January 09:15

    That video was filmed by the same crew that did the Game of Thrones battle at night where we couldn’t see anything.

    They gave this to a men’s tailor so he simply made three pieces for everyone to wear.

  • Duck Ling says:
    6 Jan6 January 09:27

    Reminds me of the TFL (Transport for London) uniform staff wear on the London Tube. I was expecting something WOW and it’s just BORING.

    • RussellH says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:42

      How could it ever be WOW? Uniform = Boring (or should be).

      • Amy C says:
        6 Jan6 January 13:35

        Virgin’s isn’t boring.

        • Londonsteve says:
          6 Jan6 January 15:20

          I agree, it’s not. It’s tawdry, befitting of a Saturday night gameshow. It makes them look less serious to my eyes but I’m probably not their target customer.

    • rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 11:25

      it really does

  • VALittleRed says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:17

    Read the equivalent article elsewhere and the jumpsuit for women was a key theme talked about, yet no mention of the jumpsuit here. It seems women have the option of opting out of if they choose as it may be impractical when they have to go to the toilet. Was this not thought of or tested? Case of style over substance?

    • Rhys says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:31

      ….which is exactly why they are given a choice. As far as I’m aware, women can choose from a skirt or trouser suit, dress or the jumpsuit. So they’re not short of options if they don’t want to wear a jumpsuit!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:32

      Women across the world wear jumpsuits and they’re all equally bad for going to the loo

      If personal choice is allowed what’s the problem with having options.

      • VALittleRed says:
        6 Jan6 January 11:35

        No problem as long as choice allowed and a particular option not pushed heavily in favour of another with view of reducing options in the future to cut costs!

    • Lady London says:
      6 Jan6 January 13:53

      Er… that problem can be designed around.

  • RussellH says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:36

    > BA’s new uniforms have been a long time coming and – frankly – a long time overdue.
    > The baggy Julien Macdonald uniform, first introduced almost 20 years ago, has long
    > looked dated and been need of an overhaul, so this is a welcome step in modernising
    > and updating BA’s brand image, particularly given how important crew are to the
    > overall impression of the airline.

    Really? Does anyone choose an airline because of how the crew are dressed?
    How much have BA wasted on employing a well-known (why?) clothing designer to come up with this?

    The one thing that BA’s (or any airline’s) work-wear needs to do is clearly identify them as BA staff. It should also distinguish them from those who work in a similar capacity for other airlines.
    It does not require to be safety-critical or even protective. It does need to be comfortable, easy to keep clean and long lasting. It does not need to be “designed”, ie come with a 200% price premium to it actual value.

    Does anyone actually discuss this sort of thing with those who have to wear it before the “design” process starts?

    • Rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:39

      It’s all part of the brand image, and de facto what you are paying for with a ‘premium’ carrier. Virgin Atlantic is probably the best example of a uniform driving the brand (Vivienne Westwood did theirs).

      Boateng’s fee will be peanuts vs the cost of manufacturing 30,000+ uniforms.

      • RussellH says:
        6 Jan6 January 10:49

        Depends on the uniforms. Will the new ones be cheaper to make? I doubt it.

        Has the fact that Vivienne Westwood designed VS’s uniforms sold any tickets?

        • Rob says:
          6 Jan6 January 10:52

          In context of the whole VS image, oddly I think it does. Not so much the male uniform, but the female one is so different that it does send an image of what the VS experience will be that will attract people.

    • RSeanV says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:54

      > It does not require to be safety-critical or even protective.<

      Actually, it does need to be protective or at least not detrimental to safety. Use of made-made fabrics (polyester etc) should be avoided as it’s much harder to fight a cockpit/cabin fire whilst your clothing melts. You might argue that that’s such a rare occurrence as to be pointless, but the only reason there are any cabin crew at all is for safety, including fire fighting. If the CAA didn’t mandate 1 CC per pair of main doors & 1 per 50 pax, there would be no-one at all and a vending machine if you’re lucky!

      Natural fibres such as coton and wool offer far greater protection than polyester but I suspect that even if there are high percentages of natural fibres in the initial launch products, this will diminish in a race for the cheapest option possible. That’s certainly what happened with the last 2 uniforms.

    • Bob says:
      6 Jan6 January 11:29

      His a brilliant black designer. Who the French seem to rate as well. They were going to go with the British Brand Burberry

      • Mayfair Mike says:
        8 Jan8 January 01:36

        What’s his skin colour got to do with it? Would you have called Vivian Westwood a white designer?

  • NFH says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:40

    I’m not sure that jumpsuits are new. I remember when I flew on Russian airline S7 three times in 2013, some of the cabin crew were wearing jumpsuits.

  • Ian says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:45

    Unless you’re an employee of BA, or work in the airline industry, nobody cares about a new BA uniform. Keeping it from leaking, only trialling it on cargo flights, etc. is so irrelevant to the average traveller. Far more important things that BA should be focussing on than what the staff and crew are wearing.

    • Rob says:
      6 Jan6 January 10:47

      I was just discussing this with Rhys 🙂 I have a similar editorial view and if left to me this would have run in the 3rd slot on Sunday. However, the article is going gangbusters across all channels so I am happy to admit I am wrong on this one.

      • vlcnc says:
        6 Jan6 January 12:22

        I think it’s an avgeek niche topic that overspills into those that might fly more regularly. I do think it is very newsworthy though especially given the time, that its BA and the focus of the blog. But I guess that’s also why you have Rhys 😉

      • CarpalTravel says:
        7 Jan7 January 07:58

        Depends on the type of discussion and traffic you are wanting. Importance and emotive are two different things. It’s like internet discussions about whether iOS or Android is better. Simply throw in a few political or Brexit related articles and you can easily drive lots of Daily Mail-esque opinionated traffic. The question though is do you want quality, or quantity?

      • Mayfair Mike says:
        8 Jan8 January 01:42

        It’s just a slow news day.
        The last few articles have been pretty bland – can’t be helped – you can only report on what is new.
        Cabin crew uniform I personally couldn’t care less about as long as its smart.

        In recent days we had one article about some crank topping up his oyster for 35p at a time because he didn’t have the wit to do anything better in London….then another one full of conspiracy theorists and 3rd rate marketing analysts trying to explain the Amex referrals changs, which is probably a simple IT hiccup!

        • Rob says:
          8 Jan8 January 09:51

          The crew uniform story is now turning into one of our most read ever. We’ve even had 35,000 impressions on LinkedIn vs our usual 5,000 for a post. The Facebook one is on 32,000 impressions vs our usual 3,000 (with over 8,000 engagements) etc. You can never tell what will work.

          In general we run more ‘beginners’ stuff in January because we get a huge number of first time visitors from people who decide its finally time to use up their Avios to book their Summer holiday.

  • George K says:
    6 Jan6 January 10:54

    I can’t tell from the pictures whether there’s a tie-clip sort of accessory securing the neck scarf on the female crew uniforms but if it’s as loose as it looks, I can’t imagine this being at all practical. Or is the idea to remove it during flight?

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