Banned for a crop top? Airline dress codes have double standards

US low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has recently updated its Conditions of Carriage to ban passengers from flights if they are “barefoot or inadequately clothed (i.e. see-through clothing; not adequately covered; exposed breasts, buttocks or other private parts), or whose clothing or article, including body art, is lewd, obscene or offensive in nature”. Also, if the passenger “has an offensive odour unless caused by a qualified disability”.

The Spirit move appears to have been sparked by an incident that took place late in 2024 when two women were removed from a Spirit flight from Los Angeles bound for New Orleans for wearing crop tops.

Wearing a crop top on a plane could be enough to get you kicked off, as two women in the US discovered.Credit: Getty Images

When they boarded both were wearing jumpers over their crop tops but they took them off when the air conditioning wasn’t cooling the cabin. A male flight attendant told the two friends to cover up, they protested but despite offering to put on their jumpers, the attendant said it was too late and they were booted off the flight, with no refund.

The incident made the news, with extensive TV and newspaper coverage showing the women in their crop tops, and that was a long way short of scandalous. The eye so easily offended at their attire must have spent the past half century watching re-runs of The Sound of Music. In the wash-up that followed, Spirit felt the need to spell out what was expected.

When it’s the beholder who decides what’s offensive, the judgement that follows might be narrow-minded, especially when it’s a male judging a female. Remember the blokey bikini police who patrolled Bondi Beach in the late 1960s? In January 2024, New Zealander Lisa Archbold was kicked off a Delta flight after an airline employee told her the white T-shirt she was wearing was “offensive” and “revealing”. Her offence – she wasn’t wearing a bra according to a story published in the New Zealand Herald.

Thongs are considered suitable footwear by Australian airlines.Credit: Alamy

She was allowed to reboard the plane after putting on a button-up shirt, but as Archbold observed, “I wore the same clothing any man might wear. I also have a chest smaller than many men on that flight.” She has a point. Apart from T-shirts with offensive slogans, it’s virtually impossible to find examples of men who have been pinged for wearing “revealing” attire on an aircraft.

Although Archbold and the crop top duo were innocent enough, that’s not always the case. According to a story published on Belgian aviation website Aviation24.be, Kine-Chan, a 21-year-old model, influencer and OnlyFans content creator, showed up at Brazil’s Navegantes Airport in August 2023 wearing a cosplay outfit, consisting of a black bikini, turquoise wig and black sandals. Staff deemed her outfit “inappropriate” and Kine-Chan was prevented from boarding her flight. Her 600,000 Instagram followers were largely unsympathetic, one telling the disruptor “you could have put on an easy pull-up outfit, like a falling dress or even a button-down blouse”.

However, this wasn’t about getting on her flight, it was a naked play for attention, and Kine-Chan scored. Images of a young woman in a bikini are sure to get clicks, and although she didn’t make her flight, Kine-Chan made it into media around the globe. Mission accomplished.

Most airlines have dress codes. Virgin Australia spells out what the airline expects of its passengers, and it’s not all that prescriptive. “All adults and children who are capable of walking must wear suitable footwear,” but thongs are acceptable. Clothing must cover your bottom half, and singlets are ok.

“If your items of clothing display offensive language or symbols, you will not be permitted on our services. If you do not meet our minimum dress requirements, you will be prevented from travel until you are dressed appropriately.”

“Offensive language” probably rules out the T-shirt Grace Tame wore to the Australian of the Year celebrations, expressing her dislike of the Murdoch media empire, but she was hobnobbing with the PM, not attempting to board a flight.

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame would not have been allowed to board a Virgin flight in that T-shirt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Jetstar bans bare feet and socks except for infants and passengers with medical devices or wearing a cast. “For your safety, all adults and children who are capable of walking must wear footwear (thongs are acceptable) during boarding and disembarking. Please refrain from wearing clothing or personal items that display words, images, symbols or slogans that may reasonably be deemed offensive.”

Qantas doesn’t have a dress code for flights but it does for its business and first-class lounges. Singlets, board shorts, UGG boots and thongs are out and so is head-to-toe gym wear and clothing featuring offensive images or slogans.

Many celebs have fallen foul of Qantas’ lounge-dress policy including Kate Ceberano (open toe mules, 2015), sex worker Estelle Lucas (thongs, 2015), Human League vocalist Joanne Catherall (UGG boots, 2017), American fitness model Natalie Eva Marie (head-to-toe gym wear, 2020), and, in a rare case of a male infringer, former England cricketer and star batsman Kevin Pietersen, given out when he tried to enter a Qantas first-class lounge wearing thongs in 2015.

I’m all for dress codes. Dressing to fit the occasion signals to the world that you know what’s appropriate, and how to behave. Clubs and bars often have dress codes. So do temples, mosques, posh restaurants and Harrods in London. If I enter a Japanese home, I’m expected to remove my shoes, at a Sikh temple I must cover my head and I’m fine with that. But kicking women off a flight for wearing a crop top, or no bra? How about not looking?