This was posted on the Dress a Day blog this week, and I agree with it completely. (Dress a Day is really great–not only do you get vintage patterns and lots of talk about sewing, she uses words like “aleatory”.)
My take is that people who wear clothes on airplanes that are better suited to washing a series of strangers’ cars at $5/pop have essentially given up all hope that they will ever be the recipient of happy chance. They’ve decided serendipity is not for them, so they’ve forsaken the notion that perhaps one day they may need to make a good first impression on a stranger. (They’ve also decided that they don’t ever need to be upgraded to business class, never mind first.)
Last night I saw clothes that said “I model for Frederick’s of Hollywood, Lamé Division” and clothes that said “my favorite Saturday morning cartoon and a bowl of chocolate-frosted sugar bombs are what I REALLY need right now. ” None of those clothes said “Take me seriously, please.”
I’m not against comfort — but there’s a line between ‘comfortable’ and ‘raggedy-ass lazy’ and the airport is not the place to cross that line. An airplane is a confined space, and, like any confined space, demands MORE civility and regard for others, not less.