Will Dressing Up Fix Flying? Will It Fix Anything?

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday travel season, the Trump administration has kicked off a campaign meant to encourage civility that has caused something of a kerfuffle.

The campaign, introduced via video on Wednesday, aims to “jump-start a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel,” said Danna Almeida, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Department. It suggests that good manners and “dressing with respect” will usher in a new “golden age of travel.”

Hang on. “Dressing with respect?” What does that even mean? Perhaps more than might initially … well, appear. After all, in the Trump administration, optics have always been a running theme. This is simply the latest example.

The video does not go into detail, and Ms. Almeida did not respond to a question asking for specifics. But it does contain some clues. It begins with a throwback voice-over extolling the romance of flying and images of passengers boarding planes in what looks like the 1950s or ’60s, complete with fedoras, suits, ties, dresses and pumps. Then it jumps ahead to what is presumably today to show fliers in bare feet, brawling in leggings, T-shirts and baseball caps.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is shown in a snazzy gray suit and glossy silk tie, flashing a pocket hankie and looking excited to be in an airport. On X, he posted a message encouraging everyone to “dress up to go to the airport, help a stranger out, and be in a good mood,” along with a clip from a Fox Business interview in which he is in a suit (no tie), denouncing the wearing of pajamas on planes.

The implication, presumably, is that clothes help make the mental state, and sloppy dress leads to sloppy behavior.

The obvious issue (as pointed out by numerous commentators on social media) is that the campaign does not acknowledge any other reasons for the rise in incivility in travel, though a news release noted that passenger outbursts had increased a whopping “400 percent” since 2019. That includes, for example, the fact that economy class often feels like steerage, with ever-shrinking seats and legroom that practically demand stretchy comfort clothes. And that flight cancellations related in part to the government shutdown left people stranded in airports for hours, sometimes with children who need sleep, or stuck in endless lines trying fruitlessly to get back to their families. Even the nicest shoes can’t fix that.

Whatever you think of the psychology involved, the issue of clothes on planes is not a new one.

As far back as 2017, United Airlines caused a social media meltdown when it barred “pass travelers” (employees and their dependents traveling free on a standby basis) from wearing leggings on a flight. Spirit Airlines recently introduced a revised “contract of carriage” that prohibits passengers from boarding if they are “barefoot or inadequately clothed (i.e., see-through clothing; not adequately covered; exposed breasts, buttocks or other private parts)” or if their clothes or “body art” are “lewd, obscene or offensive in nature.”

Bare feet are likewise forbidden on Delta, United and American. But that’s about as far as the dress codes go.

In the balance of power between service provider and paying passenger, the choice of the individual has increasingly taken precedence — even on a crowded airplane, where the social contract also comes into play. Rarely, however, has the government weighed in on the issue — at least until now.

According to Ms. Almeida, “the Trump administration is focused on improving the lives of American families, and that includes their experiences on our transportation systems.” (The administration has challenged the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is designed to improve actual transportation systems in America.) Besides, she went on, “it shouldn’t be controversial to suggest dressing respectfully in public, especially in environments where children may be present.”

Perhaps not. But the focus on appearance and the valorization of a sort of nostalgic, last-century style, one in which suits and ties make the man and sheaths and heels make the woman, has become a hallmark of Trumpism. It is a defining characteristic of everyone in the Trump orbit or anyone who wants to be in the Trump orbit. As has decreeing a return to a “golden age.”

Perhaps to underscore this point, President Trump has seemingly gilded the entire Oval Office, though mostly what that underscores is the superficiality of this particular definition of “golden.” And Mr. Trump’s affinity for dressing up whatever is at hand.

It’s no accident that the new Transportation Department campaign follows an edict from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in which he decreed that there would be “no more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression” in the military. “We’re going to cut our hair, shave, shave our beards and adhere to standards,” he said.

His boss is, after all, famous for commenting on the looks and clothes of those around him, whether to praise those in favor or show his displeasure.

Simply consider Mr. Trump’s criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during Mr. Zelensky’s first visit to the Trump White House earlier this year, when the Ukrainian leader showed up in his usual dark sweater and black fatigues, and Mr. Trump’s delight when more recently Mr. Zelensky wore a black quasi-suit for their meeting.

Or that in October Mr. Trump described Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, as “central casting” and that during a Gaza peace ceremony, he called the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “beautiful young woman.” Or that more recently, incensed when a reporter for Bloomberg News asked a question about the Epstein files, the president said, “Quiet, piggy.”

As it happens, when the president made his “piggy” comment, he was on Air Force One, presumably wearing his usual business suit. Which suggests that when it comes to civility on a plane, even with this administration, clothes can only take you so far.

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.

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