Do you think airport 'attire standards' have dropped too far?
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Airports will soon be hopping with travelers hoping to get home or away from home for the holidays.
There may be no better time for us to dive into one of the biggest controversies near the runway: how modern airline passengers dress.
In highly publicized incidents, flyers have been kicked off flights for pants that are too sagging, T-shirts that are too explicit, but strangely not for bikini-bottoms.
What people wear while traveling by air has even caused spirited debate among the fashion conscience in our newsroom. We’re both frequent fliers with a love of style but very different views of what constitutes appropriate airborne attire.
Katie: I’ve been a frequent flier my whole life. My mom, the most organized traveler to ever sport a fanny pack, taught my brother and me to be respectful airline passengers.
But I don’t remember my mom ever instructing us on what to wear on the plane. My clothes were usually based on the weather in my departure and arrival cities.
Later, I adapted a fool-proof outfit that ensured maximum ease of progress through the security check point. No jewelry, no belt, nothing in the pockets. A sweatshirt and either jeans, sweats or pajama/lounge pants. Finished off with flip-flops for quick and easy shoe removal.
I’ve occasionally strayed from this wardrobe in favor of more formal attire and have always regretted it. I never again want to re-live the day I had to remove my Mary Jane pumps to sprint through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Amelia: I have always loved airplanes and was only slightly annoyed back in grade school when jerky kids called me Amelia Earhart I earned a FAA license to repair planes while a student at Cleveland’s now closed Aviation High School and worked part-time at my college’s airport. Although I practiced flying planes when I was a kid, I didn’t take my first airline flight until college. As I got my wings — a wing lapel pin — I realized the experience was special. I’ve taken many trips since. I dressed for flights based on the advice of a friend’s mom, a Delta retiree. She said it was important to look like you were going somewhere.
Katie: The problem is that no matter where you are going, you are going to be a spazzed-out, wrinkled mess when you get there. Why not embrace that look?
Between the stranger going through your underwear and the agonizingly slow taxiing, air travel is extremely stressful. There are so many little things passengers have to worry about that “looking good” shouldn’t be one of them.
Amelia: I agree. Air travel has lost its shine. Passengers aren’t treated as well as they were during the lavish Pan Am days. And compared to now, air travel was like an all-inclusive cruise when I took my first flight in the early ’90s. You don’t get free food these days. You’re lucky to get half a Diet Coke.
That said, you should still wear actual clothes when you travel.
Katie: But I like to start the relaxing part of vacation as soon as possible. I get to curl up with a tiny pillow and scratchy blanket, read a good book, listen to some tunes and catch a quick nap. My PJs look is perfect for keeping warm in the freezing cabin.
Amelia: It’s not right to wear PJs in the grocery store and it’s not right to wear them during flight.
Katie: If I’m going to pay an exorbitant amount of money to stand in lines, be fondled, barked at and have every aspect of my privacy invaded only to squeeze into a tin can where one can’t smoke, eat, use any entertaining devices or even stand up, is it too much to ask to be able to wear what I want?
Amelia: I am not easily offended, but I think there should be standards. The airport is not the county fair or a local bar on wet T-shirt night. It is also not a volleyball court.
Katie: Isn’t it? What makes the airport different from those places? It’s a big crowded mess of humanity where all types of folk are expected to interact with each other peacefully. If you walked out of your house, got in or on public transportation, walked through a parking lot and an airport and no one called the police on you for indecency, then you should able to wear it on the plane.
Amelia’s: Umm, no. I now think back to the famous words: “I know it when I see it,” uttered by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in describing pornography. When it comes to a hot mess on a plane, that’s what I say.
People obviously have a right to wear what they want as long as that thing isn’t truly obscene. If you bear the indignities and expenses of modern travel, you shouldn’t fear being bounced from a plane for wearing jeans held up only by the grace of the almighty.
That said, don’t be a hot mess. You don’t have to be dressed to the nines, but you should represent yourself, and, while on international trips, your country as best as you can.
Katie: I contend that it’s every person’s prerogative to be a hot mess if they want to. As comedian Ricky Gervais says, “You have the right to be offended, and I have the right to offend you. But no one has the right to never be offended.” If someone doesn’t want their children to be exposed to tactless T-shirts and baggy britches, well then I guess they’ll just have to stay at home..
Amelia: In the end, it shouldn’t be up to the airlines to police passenger fashion. That’s something people should do for themselves. The next time you are tempted to wear your favorite novelty T-shirt to the airport, ask yourself if it is right to wear a garment displaying words and images that most would find offensive.
What do you think? Who won this debate? Let us know at arobinson@daytondailynews.com or kwedell@coxohio.com.
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