Versace Freshens Up with Travel Kits for Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines travelers can skip the last-minute blitz for moisturizer, lip balm and other in-flight sundries, since the carrier will be providing them with travel kits from Versace or Mandarina Duck. Business-class passengers taking intercontinental flights will get the Versace assortment. Female fliers will find socks, earplugs, a sleep mask, warning stickers, Versace lip balm, hand lotion, facial mist and a hair clasp all contained in a zippered orange case. The men’s version is slightly different and is stowed away on a black case. To keep the pearly whites intact, there are travel-size Colgate toothpaste tubes as part of the deal.

Staying squeaky clean is truly in fashion, as evidenced by Naomi Campbell’s viral “airport routine” video, which was filmed on a Qatar Airways plane. More than 1.4 million people have watched the five-minute spot on her YouTube channel. The supermodel breaks out her pre-packed plastic gloves to scrub down her business class surroundings, “cleaning anything that you touch or could possibly touch.”

Turkish Airlines isn’t just offering its business-class passengers some special pampering with the Versace loot. Its economy-class travelers are being given Mandarina Duck’s version of a travel kit. The toiletries aren’t the only way that the company is trying to refresh its image. For its 85th anniversary, Turkish Airlines has spruced up cabin crew employees’ in-flight look with new uniforms from Ettore Bilotta. The new uniforms were sewn by Vakko, and the main fabrics were produced by Altınyıldız, in compliance with Turkish Airlines’ flight standards.

The Milan-based designer incorporated classic elements of Turkish design borrowed from traditional patterns in artisanal glassware, ceramics and calligraphy with contemporary accents. To give his finery more of an of-the-moment spin, the airline tapped British photographer Miles Aldridge to shoot the campaign to launch the cabin uniform collection on location in Turkey. Aldridge said the Italian designer’s new uniforms “hark back to a golden age of fashion from the Fifties, but with a contemporary twist.”

And as for those duty-free pre-flight or post-flight shoppers, last year some of the most avid ones helped South Korea’s Incheon International Airport rack up $2.4 billion in sales — more than any other airport. Their thirst for beauty products reportedly resulted in 40 percent of the total. Finishing in second place was Dubai International Airport with just over $2 billion in duty-free sales last year.

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