VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Christian Lacroix: Riding the Rails; Flying the Skies

The very bankrupt Christian Lacroix (or is that just his company who is the debtor) has designed new uniforms for employees of the French Railway, shown below left. Perhaps this is a Willie Nelson move and he is paying down the debt, or perhaps he is doing this outside the auspices of the company. At any rate, the uniforms join his previous efforts of re-imagining the attire for Air France employees, at right.

In my humble opinion, the airline uniforms win hands down. Perhaps my opinion is swayed by the overall styling of the presentation. The uniforms at left appear tailored to the ladies, where the uniform at right could use a bit of a fitting and finishing. In addition, its the bow.  While I think an ascot or tie could have worked in this situation, the bow feels fussy and impractical.  In a uniform situation, you are going to have a wide range of people wearing it.  Some have the savoir faire to tie bows perfectly, with a pleasing proportion of material on each side.  Some are going to have their bows looking a little straggly.

I am wondering what the uniform for men has at the neck.Of course, my biggest question is: Where are the guys?  What does the men’s version of these uniforms look like?  If anyone has a picture, please send it my way.  I can imagine that the Railway uniform could be identical, sans bow.  Is the cut of the jacket in the navy blue uniform in the airline photo the same, or is it a totally different take?  You will have to send me press photos and your vacation photos (with permission from the employees, of course, in having their photo snapped.)

By the way, the VintageGent-ette wants one of those blue uniforms, or at least the jacket, in the worst way.  But then one would have to have the skirt because the navy wouldn’t be exactly the same as another navy.  But the jacket would look cool with jeans on its own.  Oh…and the railway jacket too.