Braniff

The House Industries blog is one of my regular stops. There's always something interesting going on. The folks at House Industries design fonts and some other really cool products, some are bike related. One of the products that they used to sell was a very interesting nativity scene by American artist/ architect Alexander Girard. My wife loves the nativity scene but at $599 it's a bit too expensive for our family's Christmas display. I did some reading on Alexander Girard and discovered that at one time he worked with Dallas based Braniff International Airways. He was partly responsible for modernizing the look of their aircraft in their "End of the Plain Plane" project. I didn't know much about the airline but as a kid (the airline folded in 1986) and I never had the opportunity to fly Braniff. I had seen the airline's magazine ads and I really liked the unusual colors and designs on their aircraft. It turns out that Braniff was much more unusual than I had expected. Besides the brightly painted aircraft the stewardesses were dressed in wild looking uniforms, and their terminals were furnished with some cool looking modern furniture.

Design by Alexander Calder

Calder at work.

This sofa was designed by Girard and is upholstered with Eames fabric. It's being auctioned (Ebay?) and is expected to sell for anywhere from $6,000-$8,000.

This uniform is being sold on Ebay. The Buy it Now price is $250,000. I imagine that they are quite a few ex-Braniff stewardesses wishing that they had held on to their issued gear.