The Collector

Frank151: What is your earliest memory of airline travel?
Cliff Muskiet: I was a five-year-old kid, and I traveled from New York to Amsterdam. I was actually born in New York and lived there for five years before moving to Holland. The plane left in the late evening, and I remember traveling from the terminal by bus to the airplane, and I remember the departure, and I remember I slept a lot on the plane, so I don’t really remember the flight itself. That’s how I started to be interested in airplanes and aviation.

F151: What about airplane travel sparked your imagination?
CM: It’s different than traveling by bus or train because you can fly. It’s the only possibility to fly. And it has some kind of glamour and it’s exciting. I don’t know, I get a kick out of it, you know? Every time we take off in a plane I feel this strange feeling in my stomach. It’s weird. But it’s a feeling.

F151: So what got you interested in airline uniforms?
CM: It’s a very difficult question to answer because the funny thing is, I have so many uniforms at home, and if those uniforms were worn by policewomen or by nurses or a stewardess on a train, I would not be interested. I would throw them away immediately. So it really has to do with the fact that a stewardess works on a plane, and I like planes. It’s part of aviation. It has this glamorous thing about it, to me, and that’s why I like to collect the airline stewardess uniforms. And because the uniforms are so different, there’s such a big variety of different styles, many different colors and accessories, so it makes it more interesting—for me—to collect them.

F151: What designer would you consider to be a true innovator in airline uniform fashion?
CM: Emilio Pucci was a big name in the 50s, 60s and 70s because he designed for Braniff International. He was very well-known in the 60s because the Braniff uniforms were really trendy and cool; they really stood out, they were unique. He used a lot of bright colors and they had these plastic helmets on their heads like astronauts.

F151: Why doesn’t anyone make uniforms like that anymore?
CM: Because women wouldn’t want to wear a uniform like that. It’s not practical. It’s nice to look at, it’s funny to look at it, but not practical. And nowadays a uniform has to be more like a business outfit. So I don’t think a lot of women would accept wearing such a uniform.

F151: Would you ever like to work with a famous designer to create your own airline uniform?
CM: For my own airline? Yes! I don’t know if I would introduce the same kind of uniform as Braniff did, but I would definitely make a complete uniform with a hat, a scarf and all the accessories to make the uniform stand out. I’d use a lot of color, because I think a lot of airlines, especially in the US, they use dark blue or black and it’s quite boring; all the uniforms look alike.

F151: What’s your dream for your collection?
CM: Well, on my website, I mention opening a museum, but it’s very hard to open a museum because you need a lot of money, a lot of space for all the uniforms I have. At the moment, I have 651 uniforms, so I think I need a lot of space.
F151: Where do you store them now?
CM: At home.
F151: Wow!
CM: My big dream at the moment is to make a book—a big coffee table book with all the uniforms I have and use real models. It could be glossy pictures like Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar. So I’m working on that, looking for a publisher right now.

F151: What was the most challenging uniform for you to obtain?
CM: Well, I had a layover in Singapore, and I traveled all the way to Hong Kong. It’s a three-and-a-half hour flight to pick up some uniforms at Cathay Pacific, that’s the airline from Hong Kong, and I went to their office, got their uniforms and then flew back to Singapore. So it was quite an adventure to travel all that way for the uniforms.

F151: Are there uniforms out there that you’d like to get your hands on?
CM: Oh, yeah. There are so many. It’s a never-ending hobby because airlines come and go and they keep changing their uniforms so it never ends, you can keep on collecting. I like the late 60s and early 70s because I like the style of fashion, and I think the uniforms look good in those years.
F151: And the men’s uniforms?
CM: Boring.

F151: So do you think in a past life you were maybe an airline stewardess?
CM: (laughs) Maybe! I don’t know where this interest comes from. I think all collectors, if you collect stamps or airplane models, it just clicks. And the fact that the uniforms are hard to obtain makes it even more interesting. And there aren’t many people who collect airline uniforms.

For more information, visit www.uniformfreak.com