Vivienne Westwood has redesigned the uniforms for Virgin Atlantic.
The iconic designer has created new pieces for over 7,500 members of staff – including pilots, cabin crew, Virgin Holidays employees and Clubhouse staff – and the latest famed red ensembles are scheduled to be debuted in July ahead of their official launch next year.
The unlikely partnership between Westwood and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson comes from when the fashionista’s ex-husband, musician Malcolm McLaren, met the entrepreneur when he signed the Sex Pistols to his record label.
Branson told Vogue.co.uk: "The one person in this world who could create unique designs is Vivienne. So it’s great to be working with her. What we don’t want to do is work with anyone who comes up with a design and just dumps it on the cabin crew. It’s glamorous, it’s stylish."
Westwood went organic for fabricating the clothes, using recycled materials such as leather off-cuts, polyester yarn from plastic bottles and canvas taken from reused roadside banners.
The flame-haired designer also made sure to include her signature figure-hugging tailored style.
She added: "I really think that Richard Branson has really good motives for everything he does. Fashion – actually let’s call it clothing, because most of it isn’t fashion – is one of the biggest polluters, it must be with all that landfill.
"My main focus is quality, rather quantity, and I’ve been saying to people, ‘Buy less, choose well, make it last’, Rather than just keep sucking things up."