Manish Malhotra will be designing new uniforms for over 10,000 Air India employees on the frontline, including cabin crew, cockpit crew, and ground and security staff.
Air India announced, on September 28, its partnership with celebrity designer Manish Malhotra. The ace designer, who has been the couturier behind many celebrity brides in India, will be designing new uniforms for over 10,000 Air India employees on the frontline, including cabin crew, cockpit crew, ground and security staff.
This move has been made as part of Air India’s new global brand identity in its ongoing modernisation programme. Air India expects to commence rolling out the new look for its uniformed employees by the end of 2023.
Talking about designing the new uniform for Air India, Manish Malhotra said, “It’s an absolute honour to collaborate with Air India, our national flying ambassador. Reimagining their uniforms is the onset of a journey of joy and collaboration, and I am excited to embark on it.
He added, “Our shared ideology is simple yet profound: to evolve without erasing, to modernise without forgetting. Together, we aim to intertwine tradition with the future, crafting uniforms where comfort meets authenticity, wrapped in timeless elegance.”
Manish Malhotra and his team have begun meeting Air India’s frontline staff, conducting discussions and fitting sessions with them to better understand their specialised needs.
As per an earlier report by Hindustan Times, sarees might not be completely eliminated from the uniform choices. In fact, “ready-to-wear sarees, designed to resemble traditional ones without requiring intricate draping are some of the options for consideration.
For the last six decades, flight attendants have been wearing sarees. The change happened in 1962 when the late JRD Tata made the decision to switch from skirts, jackets, and hats.
