Delta’s Lead Designer Got a Little Too Good at Playing Dress-up

I’ve always loved that Project Runway challenge in which contestants redesign workplace uniforms. How do you make a garment that’s just as stylish as it is practical for the people doing the hard work beneath the seams? So I couldn’t be more envious of Thomas Vasseur, the lead designer behind Delta’s new Distinctly Delta collection, whom I met previewing the looks that the airline’s 65,000 employees will start wearing in 2027.

The collection, developed in partnership with Lands’ End, came out of a two-year process of what Delta calls “listen, act, listen.” That meant not just employee surveys and fittings but actually shadowing workers on the job and then turning employee feedback into design details — such as pockets placed where a flight attendant actually reaches to grab a galley key, stretch linings that breathe, and fabrics tested under the harshest light and longest shifts.

The revamp marks a return to Delta’s classic colors — Navigator Navy, Runway Red, and Boarding Burgundy — but also a quiet statement about progress: a maternity line for below-wing employees (a first), performance-driven fabrics that meet the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for safety, and new silhouettes that blend form and function instead of forcing a trade-off. I sat down with Vasseur to talk about how you build a uniform that looks good, and feels even better, at 30,000 feet.

For flight crews, their “airport fit” is also a uniform. How do you design something that looks runway ready and still works at 30,000 feet?
I didn’t just watch; I did the job. I loaded bags below the wing, served drinks in the cabin, squeezed through aisles where there’s barely room to breathe. You start to see how physical it all is — lifting suitcases, stretching across seats, twisting in tight spaces while staying calm and composed. It’s practically a sport. These crews are athletes, just in better shoes.

So the goal became “Nike performance meets tailored suit.” We stripped out fussy details, reduced seams (one dress went from 12 to four), and simplified closures — no exterior buttons to snag. The silhouette stays crisp from the waist up, what passengers actually see, while the construction underneath gives crews a full range of motion. What looks elegant in the aisle has to survive the sprint behind the curtain.

Take us inside that testing process. How do you pressure-test a uniform for 65,000 people who all look and move differently?
We put the uniforms on real employees doing their actual jobs — from there, it became a process of rebuilding everything that didn’t hold up. The breakthroughs came from their honesty. Delta’s team gave us 65 pages of raw feedback on pocket depth, fabric weight, even how linings restrict movement. One note said, “Polyester feels cheap,” which I understand, but not all polyester is created equal. Some of the best performance fabrics in the world are poly blends. The key was balance: keeping rayon for softness and breathability while using poly for resilience so it doesn’t feel bulletproof.

We also tested across body types and life stages — standard, plus size, and maternity — because function shouldn’t come in one shape. Every refinement, from reshaping seams for better drape to rethinking zipper placement, was about one goal: letting people move freely. The uniform finally works with them.

It’s wild that in 2025, maternity uniforms still count as innovation. How did you make sure it wasn’t treated as a side project?
We didn’t want to design the maternity pieces at the end; we wanted them to exist from the very beginning in the same conversations as every other garment. When we do fittings, we test across the full range. We fit on a size 8, then an 18, and then maternity because proportion changes everything — even something as simple as where a pocket sits.

It was about treating maternity as part of the uniform system, not an accommodation. Pregnancy is a stage of life, not a limitation. You still show up, you still work, and you deserve clothing designed for that reality, not a borrowed men’s pant or a work-around.

What performance detail would a traveler overlook but frontline employees feel immediately?
Always the hidden details. We learned early on that the smallest adjustments make the biggest difference. Removing front buttons so nothing snags, switching to hidden zippers and snaps so crews can change quickly between flights — those changes came directly from watching how they move in real time. Every second matters when you’re working against a boarding clock.

Then there’s the lining. It looks invisible, but it’s doing all the work. We built a perforated stretch lining through the arms and elbows so the fabric breathes and bends with every motion. When I see a flight attendant lift a bag into the overhead bin now, I think, You don’t even realize that’s design helping you.

Even the pockets were redesigned with intention. Crews need storage but not bulk. We refined placement and depth so they could actually use them without disrupting the line of the uniform. Everything serves movement — quietly but completely.

How did you approach color and fabric in a way that felt true to the brand yet fresh for today?
Color is emotional. We spent days in what we call the “color room,” surrounded by hundreds of navies, watching them shift under every kind of light — morning sun, fluorescent terminals, the soft blue glow inside a cabin. A navy that feels perfect at noon can look flat at midnight, so we would leave, come back the next day, and look again with fresh eyes. We landed on a shade that feels timeless, clean under airplane lighting, grounded against Delta’s signature burgundy, and still rich in daylight.

The harder part was finding fabric that could live up to it. We built what I call a “dream vs. reality” table — what feels luxurious versus what survives the job. Every choice came down to balance: stretch without wrinkling, polish without stiffness, performance without losing personality. Even now, we’re refining shirts for sheerness and recovery because good design is never finished.