A fitness influencer says she was stopped from boarding a Lufthansa Group flight because her outfit was deemed too revealing. I live in Los Angeles, so perhaps I have simply become immune to skimpy clothing, but the only problem I see is one of hygiene.
Lufthansa Told Passenger She Was “Naked” And Made Her Cover Up To Board
A fitness influencer says she was stopped at the gate before boarding a Lufthansa Group flight from Berlin to Austria because staff deemed her outfit inappropriate (she calls it a Lufthansa flight, but LH doesn’t fly to Austria from Berlin, only Eurowings and Austrian).
Edda Elisa was wearing a sports bra-style crop top and cycling shorts while trying to board. She says a gate agent told her she could not board because she was “naked” and “not wearing normal clothes.” She then put on a hoodie from her carry-on, zipped it up, and was allowed to proceed.
Lufthansa Group reportedly said passengers are expected to wear clothing “appropriate to the nature of public travel,” though it also said the “naked” phrasing attributed to the employee does not meet its standards.
That seems right. Whatever one thinks of the outfit, calling a passenger “naked” when she is plainly not naked is not helpful.
I Do Not Find This Outfit Offensive
I realize this is subjective, and perhaps my view is shaped by living in Los Angeles, where women dressed like this are not exactly uncommon. Walk through many parts of the city and this outfit would not turn a head.
But looking at the outfit, I do not find it obscene, lewd, or so revealing that it should trigger a boarding dispute. It is athletic wear. It is indeed form-fitting and it not what I would choose for a flight (those seats aren’t washed between flights). But that is different from saying it is inappropriate enough to deny boarding.
Airlines certainly have some right to maintain standards of dress and conduct onboard. No one wants a cabin environment that becomes uncomfortable for other passengers, and there are outfits that can cross a line. But that line should be clear and applied consistently. Here, the problem (as it usually is) is that the standard sounds vague. “Appropriate to the nature of public travel” leaves a lot of discretion to whoever happens to be working the gate that day. One agent may see athletic wear. Another may see indecency. That is not a great way to run a policy.
Airlines Need Clearer Rules If They Want To Police Clothing
My concern is not that airlines can never say no to a passenger’s attire, but over arbitrary enforcement.
If clothing contains obscene language, hateful symbols, or exposes parts of the body that cannot be exposed in public, fine. That is an easy call. But sports bras, crop tops, leggings, and cycling shorts are now common public attire. You may dislike that, but social norms have changed.
Airlines cannot pretend otherwise.
There is also a gender issue here, whether airlines want to admit it or not. Dress-code disputes seem to fall disproportionately on women, often because of body shape, athletic clothing, or subjective discomfort from someone else. That does not mean every complaint is invalid, but it does mean airlines should be careful before turning gate agents into the dress code police.
A tactful approach would have been simple. If the employee believed the outfit violated policy, she could have explained the policy calmly and specifically. “You are naked” is not that. It is inflammatory and unnecessary.
CONCLUSION
A Lufthansa Group passenger says she was made to cover up before boarding because her sports bra-style top and cycling shorts were deemed inappropriate.
I do not see it. The outfit may not be everyone’s taste, but it does not strike me as obscene or so revealing that boarding should have been denied. Airlines can have dress codes, but those rules should be clear, knowable, and consistently applied. Otherwise, enforcement becomes little more than the personal judgment of a gate agent.
And in this case, that judgment seems too harsh to me.
image: @edda.elisa/Instagram // hat tip: View From The Wing
Germany – the land of nudity in public parks and the St. Pauli district (remember the old St. Pauli beer slogan “You never forget your first girl”?) – has a problem with that outfit in the sweltering summer? Not good optics.
She was dressed for the gym, or even the beach. Standards have slipped, and slipped badly. Put some bloody clothes on, you look like a cheap skank.
Fitness Influencer makes a mountain out a molehill. The remedy was zipping up the top, which didn’t come close to a big deal. Next….