20 Vintage Pictures Of 1970s Airline Fashion That Put Today’s Sweatpants To Shame

I grew up in the ’90s and didn’t fly until after 9/11, so I missed the era when flying was actually nice. By the time I got on a plane, it was already shoes off, liquids in bags, and everyone dressed like they were going to the gym. But the 1970s? Flight attendants and passengers wore suits and dresses on planes. Actual outfits.

These vintage pictures prove flying used to be an event, not a nightmare in sweatpants. We’ve fallen so far.

1. “These vintage photo of flight stewardesses from the 1970s.”

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2. Pacific Southwest Airlines stewardesses, 1972.

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3. “Stewardesses with Southwest Airlines had to wear hot pants and leather boots in the 1970s.”

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4. “Economy seating on Pan Am in the 1970s.”

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5. “United Airlines stewardesses in the early 1970s.”

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6. “Southwest Airlines flight attendant, 1970s.”

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7. “Restaurant-like dining in the upstairs lounge of Pan Am’s Boeing 747, 1977.”

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8. “A group of Air Canada flight attendants in the 1970s.”

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9. “Delta flight attendant in 1973.”

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10. “PSA flight attendants, circa 1970.”

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11. “A piano bar on an American Airlines 747 in 1971.”

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12. “PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) flight attendant graduation class, 1974.”

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13. “First-class flying in the 1970s (SAS Boeing 747-B ‘Huge Viking’).”

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14. “Iran Air flight attendants in the 1970s.”

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15. “Passengers inside an airplane in the 1970s.”

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16. “Southwest Airlines flight attendant, late 1970s.”

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17. “The 1970s: What flying on an airplane really used to be like (747 Braniff Place, a.k.a. “Fat Albert”).”

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18. “My brother in the mid-1970s, about to fly on an airplane for the first time.”

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19. “Economy-class flying in 1970.”

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20. “My beautiful mother as a flight attendant back in the 1970s.”

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