page_title: Braniff International Airways
section_title: Mary Wells and "The End of the Plain Plane"
hierarchical_section_title: Braniff International Airways / History / Mary Wells and "The End of the Plain Plane"
caption_attribution_description: Boeing 707-327C N7097 of Braniff Airways at Honolulu Airport in 1971
context_page_description: Braniff Airways, Inc., doing business as Braniff International Airways, from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until closure, was an American airline that flew air carrier operations from 1928 until 1982 and continues today as a retail, branding and licensing company, administering the former airline's employee pass program and other administrative duties. Braniff's routes were primarily in the midwestern and southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the late 1970s it expanded to Asia and Europe. The airline ceased air carrier operations in May 1982 because of high fuel prices, credit card interest rates and extreme competition from new airline startups created by the Airline Deregulation Act of December 1978. Two later airlines used the Braniff name: the Hyatt Hotels-backed Braniff, Inc. in 1984–89, and Braniff International Airlines, Inc. in 1991–92.
  In early 2015, a series of new Braniff companies were incorporated in the State of Oklahoma, for historical purposes and for administration of the Braniff trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. These companies included Braniff Air Lines, Inc., Paul R.
context_section_description: To overhaul the Braniff image, Lawrence hired Jack Tinker and Partners, who assigned advertising executive Mary Wells – later Mary Wells Lawrence after her November, 1967 marriage to Harding Lawrence in Paris – as account leader. First on the agenda was to overhaul Braniff's public image — including the red, white, and blue "El Dorado Super Jet" livery which Wells saw as "staid". New Mexico architect Alexander Girard, Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, and shoe designer Beth Levine were hired, and with this new talent Braniff began the "End of the Plain Plane" campaign.
  At Girard's recommendation the old livery was dropped in favor of a single color on each plane, selected from a palette of bright hues like "Chocolate Brown" and "Metallic Purple." He favored a small "BI" logo and small titles. Braniff engineering and Braniff's advertising department modified Girard's colors, enlarged the "BI" logo, and added white wings and tails. This, ironically, was based on the 1930s Braniff "Vega" Schemes, which also carried colorful paint with white wings and tails. The new "jelly bean" fleet carried such colors as beige, ochre, orange, turquoise, baby blue, medium blue, lemon yellow, and lavender. Lavender was dropped after a month, due to the similarity in coloration to the Witch Moth (Ascalapha odorata), a sign of bad luck in Mexican mythology.
  Fifteen colors were used during the 1960s (Harper & George modified Girard's original seven colors in 1967), in combination with 57 variations of Herman Miller fabrics. Many of the color schemes were applied to aircraft interiors, gate lounges, ticket offices, and even the corporate headquarters. Art to complement the color schemes was flown in from Mexico, Latin America, and South America. Girard designed an extensive line of furniture for Braniff's ticket offices and customer lounges. This furniture was made available to the public by Herman Miller, for a year in 1967.
  Pucci used a series of nautical themes for crew uniforms. For the hostesses, Pucci used "space age" themes, including plastic Space Helmets and Bolas (as dubbed by Pucci). These clear plastic bubbles, which resembled Captain Video helmets and which Braniff termed "RainDome", were to be worn between the terminal and the plane to prevent hairstyles from being disturbed by outside elements. "RainDomes" were dropped after about a month because the helmets cracked easily, there was no place to store them on the aircraft, and jetways at many airports made them unnecessary. For the footwear, Beth Levine created plastic boots and designed two-tone calfskin boots and shoes. Later uniforms and accessories were composed of interchangeable parts, which could be removed and added as needed.
  Emilio Pucci designed the Pucci Pant Dress Collection for the intro of Braniff's first new Boeing 747 dubbed "747 Braniff Place: The Most Exclusive Address in the Sky" (1971). The collection was debuted at the Dallas Hilton by Pucci himself, in 1970. Today, all of the vintage Pucci attire designed for Braniff is valuable. Besides the 1965 and 1971 Collections, Pucci designed new Braniff uniform Collections in 1966, 1968, 1972, and 1974.
caption: Boeing 707-320C of Braniff International at Honolulu Airport in 1971
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