Hainan Airlines-LAURENCE XU UNIFORMS

HAINAN AIRLINES - LAURENCE XU UNIFORMS

Recently, our CEO Shashank Nigam was quoted in the New York Times on airline uniforms, stressing the importance of the design as part of the overall brand:

“Today more than ever, the uniform is the most important symbol of an airline that a passenger interacts with and sees.”

Airlines that have recently changed their uniforms as part of a brand refresh include Air Canada, Thomas Cook Airlines and SouthWest Airlines.

One airline however, which has been turning heads with its new uniform has been Hainan Airlines. In July, the new uniform design got coverage in the Independent, Business Traveller and CNN to name just a few.

Indeed, CNN went as far as to question whether Hainan Airlines had come out with the “coolest cabin crew uniforms ever.”

Hainan Airlines’ uniforms have been designed by Laurence Xu, a Chinese high fashion designer, whose work is more commonly seen on the Paris cat-walks. Indeed, this is exactly where the airline unveiled the new design.

According to the airline, the designs incorporate the “alluring look of the Cheongsam, a stylish traditional Chinese dress for women usually worn on more formal occasions, the uniforms feature a collar overlaid with a pattern of auspicious clouds and a lower hem with a pattern alternating sea and mountains which contrasts with the collar’s clouds and sky.”

Hainan Airlines is mainland China’s first five star carrier according to Skytrax, and has maintained this accolade for seven years running.

One reason for this is that the airline has over the years behaved very differently to other Chinese airlines, many of who are offshoots of state owned enterprises.

A look at Hainan Airlines’ social media pages already gives one clue of this. While many Chinese airlines have a patchy record on social media, Hainan Airlines’ pages are professional and well put together.

As a result, while the Laurence Xu designs feature a Chinese fashion designer, they also very much say ‘five star airline.’ Or, as the Independent put it, they hark back to the golden age of flying.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Cabin crew are the members of staff who passengers see the most. As a result, they are an airline’s brand ambassadors. How they act, but also what they are wearing, says a lot about how your brand will be perceived.

Hainan Airlines has produced a design that is Chinese and also conveys style, elegance and quality. It is what a five star airline should be doing.