Event celebrating Dallas’ Braniff Airways, a must for fashion and flight enthusiasts

The Dallas hometown airline is having a moment: Braniff International will celebrate its 95th anniversary with an event that promises to be a must-see for fashion and airline enthusiasts.

Called The Braniff Style Tour & Fashion Show, it will take place on March 11 at the Alexander Mansion, with David Preziosi, member of the Board of Directors of the Braniff Airways Foundation and Executive Director of the Texas Historical Foundation, presenting a program on this which a press release calls one of the most revolutionary airlines in history.

The event will include lunch and a mini fashion show featuring Braniff’s vintage flight attendant uniforms created by high fashion designers Emilio Pucci and Halston.

Braniff International began in June 1928 with a small, six-passenger, single-engine Stinson Detroiter airplane that made its first flight from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. It operated as an airline until 1982.

Braniff Airlines flight attendants wear smart uniforms.Courtesy picture

Braniff Airways is now a brand/marketing, online retail and historic airline travel company with a portfolio of worldwide licensing agreements. Its history has been preserved by the Braniff Airways Foundation, an organization created by Richard Ben Cass, former pilot and Braniff collector and expert whose book Braniff Airways: Flying the Colors was released in 2015.

The Foundation manages the Braniff International Heritage Archive, formerly the Braniff Flying Colors Collection, which contains Cass’ lifetime collection and includes the original archives and records of the Braniff Airways advertising department.

The collection was founded in 1972 and has grown to become the largest and most comprehensive collection of Braniff memorabilia that includes over 1000 crew uniforms.

The Foundation also acts as an advocacy group for Braniff buildings in danger of demolition, including the mid-century-themed Braniff Operations and Maintenance Base, in conjunction with the main group Flying Crown Land.

In 2014, they drafted a nomination for Braniff Hostess College to determine its eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hostess College is undergoing a complete restoration and will become a public use facility in the future.

The fashion show promises lots of stretchy fabrics and zowie colors, while the lunch menu is a fun throwback, inspired by Braniff’s vintage flight menu, with Romanoff chicken, garden veggie medley and strawberry cheesecake .

The Braniff Style Tour & Fashion Show will take place on March 11. Doors open at 10:30 a.m., with the style show starting at 11 a.m. sharp and lunch at 12 p.m. Tickets are $60 for “First Class” (including lunch) and $20 for “Coach” (style show only). Tickets are available online. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Alexander Mansion.