Not so long ago, customers understood the rules. In order to be served or enter a business establishment you had to adhere to easy to follow dress codes. The rules were simple
Today, not so much.

If you go to London you better have clean clothing.

When in Australia, you may find some very specific instructions on what is and isn't acceptable dress wear.

To help explain its dress code, the Vatican opts for visuals, The result? Everyone knows exactly what you can and cannot wear.

Which brings us to the very bizarre saga of Southwest Airlines and the young woman one customer service representative said was dressed too inappropriately to board the flight. It does have many consumers scratching their heads and saying, 'WTF?"

On Friday, Kyla Ebbert- the  young woman who got the tongue lashing from the Southwest Airline's customer service representative appeared on The Today show.
The incident was reported online by Mike Celizic

In an exclusive appearance Friday on TODAY, Ebbert modeled the outfit she says she wore on the flight in question. It consisted of a snug-fitting white top with a scoop neck that stopped just short of showing cleavage.Over the shirt was a green sweater that buttoned underneath her bosom. It was finished with high-heeled sandals and a white denim mini-skirt with a fashionably frayed hem.

According to the report, it was after Ms. Ebbert was on the plane and listening to the flight attendants go through their pre-departure routine that a Southwest employee identified only as "Keith" told her that her clothing was inappropriate and asked that she change her outfit.

He told me, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to take a later flight. You’re dressed inappropriately. This is a family airline. You’re dressed too provocative to fly on this flight,’ ” she told Lauer.

“I said, ‘What part of it, the shirt, the skirt? Which part?’ “ Ebbert continued, recounting her conversation with Keith about her outfit. “And he said, ‘The whole thing.’“ I said, ‘I didn’t bring any luggage with me. I don’t have anything to change into. What can I do to make sure I can get onto that flight?’ I had a doctor’s appointment. I had to be there.”

“He said ‘You can go to the gift shop and you can buy something to wear there. Until then, you’re not flying on this flight,’ ” Ebbert said.

A compromise was finally reached when Ebbert promised to pull up her top, which wasn’t showing cleavage to begin with, and pull down her tiny skirt.

That led producer Dan Fleschner to write on allDay Today's Family
Blog,
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.

So there are a lot of questions here. What is appropriate dress for flying? Who should decide what is appropriate? Should airlines have a dress code? And without a dress code, can an airline block someone from flying?

The story is accompanied by a poll-- 51% say Southwest is wrong.

Southwest Airlines has a blog called Nuts About Southwest. So far the only response by Southwest is this post called a Different Perspective

A lot of you are familiar with the Southwest Airlines Customer who was asked to cover up her outfit, and there has been a lot of attention devoted to this subject.  In fact, the Customer was on the Today Show this morning.  You might be interested in the perspective of one of the show’s producers, Dan Fleschner.

Blogs being blogs, Southwest is getting an ear full from its customers.
From Robert k Ando

What has happened to the Corporate Culture thing? The shoddy treatment of the beautiful, young Miss Ebbert has me wondering. She should have gotten an apology. Has Southwest gotten too big for its hot pants? Oh for the days of friendly, beautiful young ladies in orange hotpants and free fifth of scotch or bourbon on holiday flights!!! I am so disappointed that I may not fly SWA for a while until I get over it!

From CC

Southwest is usually the smartest, funniest kid on the block. As a customer and an investor, I am disturbed by these actions of Southwest and the black eye the company has taken in the press. Apologize to this mistreated customer before she files a lawsuit, then ask her to accompany you as the two of you wear matching outfits for halloween. Nuts indeed!

What makes this story so compelling is not that one customer service representative may have overreached his authority. It's that the company didn't apologize. The lack of the apology sends a very confusing message to consumers who are not understanding what was wrong with her outfit.
Their brief blog post linking to the Today Show producer who confirmed that yes the skirt was short seems to be saying " we were justified - when she crosses and uncrosses her legs you see what you shouldn't see."

That really isn't the issue and Southwest Airlines knows it. The issue is about policies and an action that seems to be the antithesis of the company's own corporate culture. If she were trying to enter the Vatican, no one would be upset that she was turned away.

This was not the Vatican.This was Southwest Airlines -an airlines that in the past required flight attendants to wear very revealing outfits.

As far as it being so short that people can see her underwear when she sits down, I'm curious as to the angle that someone would have to be looking at her to see her underpants when she was sitting in her seat.

If it was really a problem couldn't they just have asked her to sit in a window seat where no one could possibly see anything?

Feministing.org has a great post on this issue and helps explain why, given the airlines dress code history, this action is rather ironic. The post also has the contact information for Southwest's Executive Officers.

Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines president Colleen Bartlett has been silent. Chances are she will be asked about the situation this Thursday when she is the featured speaker at Texas Christian University's Neeley School of Business Executive Speaker Series

Image Credit: Flickr member odoublegood,Dirtchick and TC