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Dressed down for dressing down
Is dress code necessary after recent flap over skimpy outfit?
NBC News video |
Airline said her outfit was revealing Sept. 7: Kyla Ebbert tells TODAY's Matt Lauer exclusively how a Southwest flight attendant asked her to leave because of her attire. Today show |
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Ebbert, a 23-year-old student and Hooters waitress, thought the outfit was appropriate flying attire for a quick day-trip from one hot city to another. So did her mom, her lawyer and plenty of folks who have heard her side of the story and seen the television clip. But as “Today” producer Dan Fleschner wrote on the program’s blog, after Ebbert stood up to show off her outfit, she sat down and gave the audience a peek at what may have been part of the problem.
Fleschner’s blog entry says: “At first, when she appeared on the set, it didn't seem like her outfit was so inappropriate. It was clear that her skirt was pretty short, but it didn't seem worthy of getting a lecture from a customer service representative on how to dress. But when she sat down, we learned just how short that skirt was — when she flashed our national television audience. Yeah, that skirt was short.”
Was it too short? Fleschner didn’t give his opinion. But it seems that the “flashing” scene was edited for the show’s later airings.
Ebbert’s experience, and other reported incidents where passengers have been asked to cover up or remove T-shirts bearing political statements or slogans, raises questions, including:
What is the appropriate dress for flying?
Do airlines have dress codes? Should they?
Can or should an airline employee be permitted to claim “inappropriate dress” as a reason for keeping a ticketed passenger from flying?
Also on this story |
What is appropriate dress for flying?
Suits for men. Dresses for women.
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On a recent nine-hour Air France flight from oh-so-fashionable Paris to Seattle, for example, the in-flight “uniform” seemed to be T-shirts and loose fitting sweat pants, shorts or blue jeans for both kids and adults. That pattern held true even in business class, where I spotted just two men in suits, a young woman wearing a bold red bra underneath a small black camisole and an older woman in a jaunty hat with a tall feather. (She either wore the hat the entire flight or put it on just for her trips to the restroom.)
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