Jaunted

The design process actually took the form of a Project Runway-ish challenge to a slew of Banana Republic's designers. In the end, it's the variety that utilized color and retro details that won out. Flip through the official images above, but here's the latest on what's coming to the newest Virgin wardrobe:

For men, the nine styles include leather jackets, lined mac coats, striped sleeve sweaters, woven shirts and pants. For women, thirteen styles include a classic pencil skirt, slim dress, trousers, leather jacket and trench to start, paired with luxe silk print scarves, slim plaque belts and Virgin America-branded serving aprons for in-flight meal service. All looks include classic aviation touches, such as shoulder tabs and button chest pockets.

Only last month, at the start of Virgin America's flights up to Portland, Oregon, did we remark on how hot-to-trot Virgin America crew looked in their current uniforms. Here is a photo of those outfits they'll now be pushing to the back of the closet, and here's another shot. Goodbye, plain white blah blouse.

What we think makes these new uniforms so crazy awesome:
· That red trenchcoat. Carmen Sandiego-cool and you know it.
· The pattern on the silk charmeuse scarves. Day-um it's good. We kind of want to use it to wallpaper a room or base a tattoo off of it.
· The contrast piping on the women's shirts that adds a little extra retro oomph.
· Sticking with the thin red belt. The plainer uniforms of Virgin America's first five years really leaned on that belt to provide a style boost. It worked and continues to; don't mess with success.
· Clean lines and NOT BLACK for the men's uniforms. That charcoal grey is hawt. Way to go, Virgin America. Like our crushes on your flight crew weren't already solid enough.
· Slick red stripes with the gold on the rank epaulets of the pilot and co-pilot. No other airline has that and it's nicely badass.
· A leather jacket option. Virgin America flies to Chicago and we all know how unforgiving the frigid winds of O'Hare can be on a fine January morning.

The only bad news from all this? Well, you won't be able to score any of the clothing unless you're employed by the airline. That's right—no running off to your local Banana Republic hoping to leave with a snazzy thin red belt from this Virgin America collection. Our eyes well up in sadness at the thought. Instead, Banana Republic will offer a capsule collection of some items for sale via the airline's RED in-flight entertainment and shopping portal on August 7. We'll have more on those items—aviator sunglasses, classic trenches for men and women, a chic leather tote and men’s messenger bag—as soon as we know more. So really it's not bad news at all.

[Photos and video: Virgin America]