Emilio Pucci - Braniff and NASA

Braniff and NASA

In 1965, New York ad agency Jack Tinker and Associates was hired by Braniff International Airways to update their image. The agency's Mary Wells hired Alexander Girard to remodel the terminals, and Pucci to design new clothes for the hostesses. As the ads put it, it was "The End of the Plain Plane".

Pucci would end up designing seven complete outfits for Braniff hostesses, pilots and ground crew between 1965 and 1977. A mark of his impact was that by 1968 Barbie had versions of all of his first four uniforms. These avant-garde creations were designed as individual components to be added or removed as weather dictated. The uniforms included turtlenecks, t-shirts, crop jackets, and culottes. Among the more unusual innovations was a "bubble helmet" – a clear plastic hood worn by flight attendants between terminal building and aircraft to protect their hairdos from rain and the blast of jet engines. Pucci incorporated Girard's "BI" logo into some of his prints.

Pucci's influence extended to the Moon. He suggested the three bird motif for the design of the Apollo 15 mission patch, although the crew replaced his blues and greens with a more patriotic red, white, and blue.