News
Glasgow's gift to design fanatics
16 April 2007
A design exhibition opening in Glasgow this week, Airworld - Design and Architecture for Air Travel, is a sure-fire treat for retro freaks.
Exploring the history of air design, the exhibition testifies to the way air travel has retained its aura of adventure through a century of airborne experimentation.
Although air travel has been transformed into a "mass phenomenon of transportation", it has evolved its own '"characteristic style", it suggests.
The aesthetic of the air suffuses cabin interiors, flight attendant uniforms, airport architecture and corporate design.
Pity the first flight customers, whose wicker seating on board the Ford Tri-Motor is on display.
By contrast, visitors may be moved to admire the medicinal chic of early flight attendant uniforms in the 1930s and 1940s, you had to be a trained nurse to be on board and your qualifications were offset with a crisp white cotton look.
This emphasis on purity was a far cry from the flurry of designer-crafted on-board uniforms in the 1960s and 1970s, when SAS outfits were designed by Dior, Valentino devoted himself to TWA and Balenciaga undertook express tailoring for Air France.
The exhibition spearheads a festival of design at 300 venues across Scotland this spring.
© Adfero Ltd
Exploring the history of air design, the exhibition testifies to the way air travel has retained its aura of adventure through a century of airborne experimentation.
Although air travel has been transformed into a "mass phenomenon of transportation", it has evolved its own '"characteristic style", it suggests.
The aesthetic of the air suffuses cabin interiors, flight attendant uniforms, airport architecture and corporate design.
Pity the first flight customers, whose wicker seating on board the Ford Tri-Motor is on display.
By contrast, visitors may be moved to admire the medicinal chic of early flight attendant uniforms in the 1930s and 1940s, you had to be a trained nurse to be on board and your qualifications were offset with a crisp white cotton look.
This emphasis on purity was a far cry from the flurry of designer-crafted on-board uniforms in the 1960s and 1970s, when SAS outfits were designed by Dior, Valentino devoted himself to TWA and Balenciaga undertook express tailoring for Air France.
The exhibition spearheads a festival of design at 300 venues across Scotland this spring.
© Adfero Ltd
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