Starting of today, 36,000 employees of Air France will appear before the carrier's passengers in curvaceous new uniforms designed by Christian Lacroix.

In his interview, the French couturier told WWD how he has always been fascinated by "stewardess" style and how he tried to come up with the perfect mix of decorative creativity and the airline's tradition of neat uniforms, having created about 100 apparel and accessories items for the personnel to choose .

“I had to find the simplest everything in order to convince everybody,” Lacroix said. “I had to find a reassuring and handsome look translating comfort, French culture and safety.”

His 2005 designs for Air France, which are planned to remain in service for at least 10 years, have nothing in common either with military uniform or with high fashion. The selection comprised a waist-conscious jacket for women with “very couture pagoda shoulders”, as described Lacroix, slim trousers, redingotes and parkas, all in dark navy and sky blue with red accents.

“I don’t like weird, too mannish or too military looks without femininity,” the designer explained. “The idea of seeing everybody clad the same is not really my cup of tea. I much prefer uniforms letting the personality, self-individuality or character appear.”

Previous designers for the French airlines included Christian Dior in 1962, Cristobal Balenciaga in 1969, and Jean Patou in 1976.

Among the big names to design airline uniforms were Valentino, Calvin Klein, Mary Quant and Pierre Cardin, who had a deal with Pakistan International to design a traditional pajama-like ensemble with head-covering dupatta.