American to Begin Wear Test of New Uniforms That ‘Break the Formula’

New uniforms will soon be debuted by a select group of American employees, with full roll out expected to begin Fall 2015.

Flyers with upcoming travel plans on American Airlines might not immediately recognize their flight crew, as a select group of employees will soon be modeling the airline’s first uniform change in more than 20 years. The Dallas Morning News reports a group of 500 employees — representing less than 1 percent of American’s staff — will soon begin a “wear test” of the new look.

The new uniforms, designed by Ken Kaufman and Issac Franco, are charcoal gray and feature accent colors that vary between departments. In 2013, Kaufman and Franco said the new wardrobe was designed to be fashion forward and “break the formula” of traditional uniforms. The use of accent colors to identify an employee’s role is an emerging new trend, one which as Etihad Airways recently adopted in their uniform redesign.

Testing of the new look for “the new American” is scheduled to begin mid-January. Those assigned new uniforms will be asked to give feedback on the performance of the clothes in working situations, and their responses will go into the final uniform designs, which will be revealed this fall. The uniforms will be assigned to the most visible airline employees, including pilots, flight attendants and gate agents. The final uniform design is expected to be completely rolled out by 2016.

American is the second of the four major U.S. airlines to recently debut a new uniform. United Airlines debuted new uniform designs in 2013, while both Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines are each in different phases of the new uniform design process.

[Photo: American Airlines’ “Arrivals” newsletter via The Dallas Morning News]