Every time high fashion has designed for the workforce

How would you react if someone told you that your favorite designer, today almost exclusively reserved for an elite audience and a symbol of absolute luxury, once dressed surgeons by creating the coolest paper scrubs ever made? Or that astronauts, even light years away from Earth, are dressed by a great couturier? These two examples are just a tiny part of the many times fashion has helped less glamorous sectors than fashion shows. Let’s recap all the times haute couture has used its expertise to serve professions that help make communal life easier every day. After all, Air France flight attendants, who make our trips in the air so pleasant, deserve a Balenciaga outfit.

Nurses' Scrubs by André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin

It’s 1965, and André Courrèges, already a great French couturier, creates a little dress that will later inspire the hospital scrub, with its short sleeves making hand washing and caregiving easier. 20 years later, he officially entered the hospital world by creating scrubs for the public hospital staff in Paris with a futuristic, avant-garde approach that was welcomed by both healthcare workers and Courrèges fashion fans. A few years later, Pierre Cardin also created a line for healthcare workers, responding to their needs and constraints. However, it was considered too eccentric and futuristic, and was therefore rejected by the hospital team it was intended for.

Air France Uniforms by Marc Bohan for Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga

In March 1962, Air France launched a new model designed by Marc Bohan for Dior, introducing the "Air France" model into its haute couture collection. The general color of the uniform lightened to become Marceau blue, and the navy blue tambourine with the Air France insignia replaced the beret. Every detail of the new uniform evokes haute couture refinement. While it was the first ever haute couture uniform, it is also the one that most marked the minds of flight attendants. At the end of the 1960s, the Spanish couturier Cristobal Balenciaga, well established in France and in the world of French fashion, was contacted by Air France to create a new uniform for its flight attendants. If you’ve watched the series about the designer on Disney+, you already know that this project was fraught with challenges. However, in 1971, he collaborated with the airline again, adding two additional outfits (one winter and one summer) to help identify the flight attendants on the ground. However, by the end of the year, many complaints were made about the lack of attention given by the designer to their working conditions. After Dior and Balenciaga, major brands like Courrèges, Hermès, Nina Ricci, and Christian Lacroix followed to create uniforms for the company.

Astronaut Uniforms by Pierre Cardin

Last September, the House of Pierre Cardin announced that it would collaborate with the European Space Agency to design the suits that astronauts will wear during their training at the new simulation center in Cologne, in preparation for the upcoming lunar mission. This partnership is no coincidence, given the space age history of the Cardin brand and the role it played in the Space Age trend of the 1960s. This new initiative extends from its previous collaboration with the Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space. The suit will allow astronauts to provide feedback on the performance of their equipment in practical situations, such as handling instruments designed to analyze lunar rocks. The materials for the training suit have been carefully selected as part of the ESA’s study on future space materials, and incorporate some fabrics previously used in Cardin’s collections, including the spongy blue recycled synthetic material that covers the suit.