Seaboard Western Airlines, Female Flight Attendant's Uniform

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August, 1956 Dated, US, Seaboard Western Airlines, Female Flight Attendant's Uniform Belonging To A Stewardess Named: "M. Lambert"

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Description

This uniform is dated August, 1956 on its factory tailor's tag that is found sewn in on the skirt's inner hem. This uniform is of U.S. origin, and has a matching jacket and skirt. Research indicates that this style of a uniform was only worn in the 1950's period, but that is not positive as of yet. The condition of the jacket and skirt is in NEAR MINT CONDITIION! The jacket is of the collar-less and lapel-less style. It is magnificently tailored to give a very sexy wasp-waist look - just what you would expect to be found on a fairly young woman's, physically petit, "runway model" shape body. The rear of this jacket has an amazing 6 gore design to give the waist a very tight fir with a great pronounced flair to the hips. We have never seen so many gores incorporated into 1 garment before. The girls back then really knew how to make themsleves look great!

The jacket has 1 false pocket on the left breast and 2 false pockets on each hip. With such a tight wasp-waist fit it is no wonder that these pockets are false as it would be impossible to squeeze anything in any of them without looking grotesque. The buttons are of the garden variety, medium grey/dark grey plastic color type. They are all matching and are sewn on with proper gauge thread. Sewn (rather crudly) near the top of the left sleeve is a grey and white color arc shap cloth patch, with the letters "U.S.A." in white embroidery. The jacket is cuff-less and has no false cuff buttons. There is a beautiful pair of silver (plated?) wings pinned over the false breast pocket. They have an enameled "Seaboard Western" logo in grey/white/and red color. They are original and are quite rare to find, even in advanced "wing" collections. A pair in broken-pin condition sold recently at a military show for $250.00 dollars, which is not a small sum for a pair of wings these days. These wings are in excellent condition and are not hallmarked.

The jacket is fully lined in an artificial (?) silk cloth that is of a stunning dark-pinkish color. The lining is in perfect condition, only showing a bit of the usual sweat staining as found in the arm pit areas. Found sewn in at the linings neck area is a large, hand sewn in white satin tailor's tag that reads: "Tailored For", "by Delta Uniforms". It is a very attractive looking tag, indicative of a high quality clothing manufacturer. The shirt is nicely pleated in front, and like the jacket is tailored for a very tight and sexy look. It is long in the hem, being considerably below the knee, as the airlines were quite conservative back then. Only in the 1960's did the hem lines go above the knee - presumably to keep up with the mini-skirt fashions of the period. There is a nice tailor's tag found sewn in at the waist with "August 1956" and "M. Lambert" typed on.

The Tank Museum has not been able to tace Ms. Lambert, so we can not tell you any more about her career. But by the dimensions of this uniform - she much have been a stunningly gorgeous woman back then. The Tank Museum did some light research on this airline and found very little. We did find some information on this little airline's big sister "Delta Airlines". Photographic evidence shows that the Delta "goils" wore a small white cap, grey color high heeled pumps, and light grey, or perhaps beige color silk or nylon stockings. The shirt as best we can tell, was high collared.

To help complete this uniform the museum has added a white color hat that looks much like the original. In fact - it may be the exact right type of hat as it is that close. This hat is in excellent condition. It includes a bevo-style tailor's tag that is sewn in the sweat band area, and reads: "Betman". The hat was made with 2 elastic loops on each inner side so the lady had a place to attach some bobby-pins so as to keep the hat in the proper position on the head (cocked slightly to one side on one picture). As an added feature this hat has 2 small plastic berets attached to each loop so the lady could anchor this hat to her hair. Another really cool feature is that there is a large straight pin with a decorative false pearl end found pinned to the rear of the hat. During those early years it was stylish to have a spare pin found pinned in a lapel, or elsewhere. It gives the hat a very nice "personal" look.

Also added to this uniform are a absolutely gorgeous pair of grey color velvet, 4 inch high heeled pumps. These pumps are just stunning! They are of the correct height and style, even having the classic 1950's "coke-bottle" style spike heel (not the modern shape spike heel as encountered today)! They are in excellent condition and are of the very expensive, all leather construction - not any of that modern, crappy, plastic/vinyl construction found today. These hight heels must have cost a fortune back then, as they cost a small fortune for cheaper knock-offs made today. These pumps were made by "Qual Craft", "Hand Casted". They cost us about $100.00 dollars to get them, and believe it or not - they were quite a bargain as the museum's director Karen collects high heels, and these were a "steal" when found.

Another addition by the museum is of a high collared, sleeveless, white color shirt. It looks like one seen in a picture of a Delta stewardess from the 1950's. This shirt is also in excellent condition.

The last addition is reall special. The museum's director William is a stocking collector of many years, and has one of the biggest collections of vintage stockings/nylons known. He added to this uniform grouping an extremely rare, pair of real silk, full fashioned, seamed, thigh high stockings. They are in great shape and are even of the correct size. They are imprinted with "silk", and "R.H. Macy & Co.". Their stockings are expensive, exhibiting the correct small "bag" in the toe and heel areas. They also have the correct, and optional, hand-reduction knitting on each side of the heel. The seams up each leg show the proper hand knitting needle marks as is proper for full fashioned stockings. But oddly, these silk stockings have only 1 top welt and not the usual light-gauge material secondary lower welt. Also rather oddly all imprinting is done on the toe and heel areas, and not placed on the top welt as is common. Toe and heel imprinting was usually moved to the outer side of the top welt so that the lady could wear open toe and heel shoes without the imprint showing through the shoes. But not for these sexy silk babies - they obviously were not intended to be worn with anything other than with classic clsoed toe and heel pumps of the period. A finer or more rare pair of sil stockings could not be found. These are the best that they come, with cheaper made, and more common color types easily bringing in over $250.00 dollars on eBay these days. And by the way, nylons were all the vogue in the 1950's as they were cheaper, felt great, and lasted longer. But certain "goils" looking for elegance and high-couture still preferred the look and feel of real silk stockings - if they could afford them!

Comments from the Curator:

The A.A.F. Tank Museum has over 300 "goils" in its uniform collection, many that are rare and precious. But of all of them, this is one of the top 5 favorites of the museum's director. This grouping is just too beautiful to fully appreciate without seeinf up close. But that comes with a caveeat: this grouping is not being offered cheaply. If you want the very best - than this is it. We even have had a professional model pose in it for some pin-up pictures. These photos can be purchased at additional cost, if you like, but we would rather not sell them or we are saving them for a pin-up calendar, which we hope to release in the future. But if you want only the very best, then here is a truly magnificent grouping that can not be surpassed.

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