A few weeks ago, I flew to Paris for Fashion Week. When I do that trip, I do not fly business. I’m paying for it myself so I am upright and typically I move my flight around so many times that I get stuck in a middle seat, somewhere near the toilets. THE GLAMOUR!!!!! This is a flight many people from the fashion industry will be on. The odds are high that I will run in to someone I know, and therefore, I don’t want to look like a total slob. However, I’m essentially trying to sleep in the comfort equivalent of a cardboard box so I can’t, like, dress up.
The fun thing about those specific trips to and from Paris is that while it is an unfortunate time to bump into colleagues and acquaintances (if you ever see me on that flight, no you did not) I do get a peek into what some very stylish, very Capital F Fashion People wear on a long-haul overnight flight. I once saw Emmanuelle Alt at the airport at the end of PFW and she was wearing grey sweatpants tucked into her socks, sneakers, a peacoat, and a graphic sweatshirt (the starstruck text I sent to friends said a “silly sweatshirt” but I think it was a pretty chic vintage thing).
Anyway, airport dressing presents a unique challenge. It is squarely in the middle of the Professional, Comfort, and Practical Venn Diagram of style, and while it is perfectly acceptable to not give a single fuck about what you’re wearing on a plane, I prefer to look…if not good then at least like myself.
Back in the day (the 80s and 90s I guess) dressing for the airport seemed like a thing, and thus, there’s so much good airport outfit inspiration from that era floating around on the internet.
Oh, and this too.
But these all came from before the time when we had to take off our shoes at security (except Kirsten Dunst, but whatever). Before the age of unloading all the shit from your bag and then reorganizing your bag while dealing with your belt and your jacket and maybe a child or two as well. And these are mostly supermodels, or other people who are professionally glamorous, and they’re not sitting in a middle seat in row 500, they’re not doing their own schlepping, they have someone for that.
However, the valuable nugget I find in all of this is that each look strikes the perfect balance between practical, comfortable, and professional. They look polished, they have big bags, they have a bold, confident stride. Everything is kind of classic and not really preppy but not edgy either. These are the clothing equivalent of unprocessed foods, they’re “whole clothes” if that makes sense, and this is where we’re headed with my little outfit ideas and tricks for flying...
