Passion for Fashion in the Air Alitalia Partners with Designer Alberta Ferretti on New Uniforms

Doing everything with class, impeccable style, elegance, and pizzazz, Ferretti presented the impressively attired Alitalia flight attendants in their new much-needed glamour uniforms on the grand outdoor staircase near the  Duomo Cathedral in Milan, where else but the fashion capital of the world.

To the delight of the enthusiastic fashion crowd, the Alitalia flight attendants sashayed in their newly created navy blue jackets, matched with skirts and trousers made in an all-season “breathable” wool fabric showcasing the Alitalia logo at the waist and cuffs. Prettily trimmed with a striped grosgrain ribbon with a subtle nod to the Italian tricolor flag and details like gold buttons, bright red ties, feminine silk scarves,  and the branded foulards knotted at the neck for women and matching bright red  ties for men, created Alitalia’s colorful and exciting  new staff uniforms. “I wanted sober lines for Italian elegance to travel around the world,” Ferretti told reporters at the unveiling of the new uniforms.

According to an Alitalia press release, “The new uniforms are a recognition of the work of thousands of colleagues who every day carry out professionally a crucial task for each airline: ensuring that passengers experience a uniquely pleasant travel experience in the name of quality,” said Fabio Maria Lazzerini, Alitalia’s chief commercial officer and the revenue manager. “For this reason, we felt it was our duty to guarantee them maximum comfort and well-being in their daily activities.”

You can see the new uniforms as they land in airports around September.  Alberta Ferretti joins Zac Pozen for Delta and Vivienne Westwood for Atlantic Airlines, just to name a few of the number of famous fashion designers who found their calling on a new catwalk high up in the sky of approximately 30,000 feet in the air.

An interpreter of a passion for beauty, charm, romanticism, and personality, Ferretti is coordinating four showrooms in Milan, Paris, New York, and Tokyo and leads the opening of a number of boutiques in the most important fashion and luxury capitals of the world. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, among them an honorary degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage for the recovery of the medieval village of Montegridolfo. In July 2005, she received an award in Rome for her professional commitment and for her work in promoting Italian culture in the world. In 1998, she was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. In 2005, the International Fashion Group with Vogue Magazine’s Anna Wintour awarded her “The Romantics” prize for the annual Night of Stars in New York.

If you are a collector of airline fashions and ready to show off an exclusive collection dedicated to the Italian national airline, you can purchase a hand-embroidered sweatshirt with the Alitalia logo for $460 dollars on Alberta Ferretti’s site. My personal favorite souvenir while flying on Alitalia would be the minimalist leather satchel Ferretti designed exclusively for flight attendants to use as a carry-on purse. As you can see I am a more unassuming, practical person. Can you hear me, Signor Lazzerini or Signora Ferretti?  Grazie.

See you in Italy! Ciao for now.

Lina Broydo immigrated from Russia, then the Soviet Union, to Israel where she was educated and got married. After working at the University in Birmingham, England, she and her husband immigrated to the United States. She lives in Los Altos Hills, CA and writes about travel, art, style, entertainment, and sports. She hardly cooks or bakes, with no borsch or piroshky on her home cooking menu. Therefore, she makes reservations and enjoys dining out, mostly sushi.

By Lina Broydo