Dressed down for dressing down

The controversial short skirt and low-cut shirt that Ebbert wore on her Southwest flight looks just like the sort of outfits I’ve seen my college-aged niece and plenty of other young women wearing in public. “Yeah,” my niece dashed off in a quick e-mail between classes, “girls dress like that and even skankier around here.”

How anyone can climb in and out of a car or reach over or up for anything without showing even more than Ebbert showed on national television is beyond me. But if they’re comfortable wearing that — and their mothers let them go out like that — it’s none of my business. (Especially since, when I was in high school, I was one of those girls hiding small “alternate” outfits in the bushes behind the house. Sorry, mom.)

But today the topic is not what to wear to English class, but what to wear on an airplane. And while I think it might encourage everyone to behave a bit better if they did dress up just a bit for an airplane trip, my advice has more to do with health and safety than fashion.

Socks and shoes:  Wear ‘em.  I don’t care how cute your little piggy-went-to-market toes are: if you wear flip-flops or sandals without socks you’ll have to walk barefoot on the floor at the security checkpoint where thousands of other passengers in street shoes have been walking. Think of all the bacteria and fungal infections you’ll be exposed to.

Clothes that are too tight: It’s a good bet that even on a short flight you’ll end up sitting at the airport or on the airplane for a long time.  Experts advise against wearing tight jeans, tight shoes or synthetic clothes that won’t let your skin breathe or that might hinder your movement in an emergency.

Clothes that are too short:  Like Miss Ebbert on TODAY, you might give others an unintended “show” if you wear tiny shirts, short shorts or teeny-weeny skirts. But given how often people change baby diapers on tray tables and how infrequently airlines clean the tables, seat cushions and other airplane surfaces, it’s not in your best interest to put uncovered legs, arms or midriffs against any of them.

Airline dress codes: Do they exist? Should they exist?
The only place most airlines address what passenger may or may not wear is buried in the Contract of Carriage.

For example, Southwest Airlines states that the carrier may refuse to transport or remove from the aircraft passengers ... “whose clothing is lewd, obscene, or patently offensive.”

American Airlines reserves the right to refuse to transport you if you ... “Are clothed in a manner that would cause discomfort or offense to other passengers ...”

But, as we know, what bothers one person is often just fine with another. In between the Austin Powers-ish “Yeah, baby” comments on Internet discussion boards about the “Ebbert episode” are thousands of comments applauding the airline for telling a scantily-clad passenger to cover up and damning the carrier for policing wardrobes instead of improving services such as on-time departures and arrivals.

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