What went into SIA’s new Pazzion cabin crew shoes after 31 months of development

According to Kebaya Societe, a Singapore-based cultural archive documenting local fashion heritage, Balmain also designed the original white sandals worn with the uniform, which have since undergone several updates.

In 2001, SIA introduced closed-toe slingbacks to improve cabin crew safety, several months after the SQ006 crash in Taiwan in October 2000.

Some flight attendants involved in the crash had reported losing their sandals during the evacuation and having to walk barefoot through debris. However, SIA said at the time that its footwear review had begun two years before the accident.

Female cabin crew subsequently alternated between the slingbacks and traditional sandals during different flight phases.

The latest change will replace that arrangement with a single closed-toe design.