Years ago, when airplane flights were still more of a novelty, we "dressed" to travel.

Maybe we fancied ourselves jet-setters of sorts and took our cues from those stylish stewardesses who always looked so poised and perfect.

Favorite shoes, sans rose, thanks to TSA.

Sadly, those days of traveling in a certain fashion seem to be gone for good. Nothing confirmed it more than the sight of one rather hairy man clad in jeans and a sleeveless undershirt strutting across a crowded terminal last month. I’m the first to admit a tank top (or undershirt) is appealing on the right physique in the right place. This guy, however, was no James Dean.

The skyway style police must have been off the day I traveled. Not the case, however, for Kyla Ebbert, the 23-year-old woman admonished by a Southwest Airlines employee for her “too revealing” miniskirt. She took her tale to “Today,” and “The Dr. Phil Show,” and has received an apology – and two free round-trip tickets – from the airline.

Sure, her skirt was short. But short enough to threaten kicking her off the flight?

I can think of a lot worse offenses I’ve encountered on commercial airlines than a little leg ... Attendants who chattered non-stop through a red-eye flight, that mom one row away who changed her child’s very smelly diaper on the tray table, the TSA luggage searchers who ripped the leather rose off my favorite pair of pumps ...

Still, I’m all for a little style on flights – where else can we be so anonymous, try on a new persona or push our fashion limits without the scrutiny of people who think they know us so well? Let’s have a little fun when we travel, ladies – I’ll be the one behind the mysterious dark glasses.

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