The Annual "Who Can Wear What" Discussion
The first story - very widely publicized- came from an incident last weekend where girls traveling with an adult who works for United airlines got stopped from boarding the plane because of the leggings that they were wearing. There was a high-profile mom activist in line who saw this and started a Twitter frenzy that included a couple of actresses who stepped in. United answered back but left out a key point (which hurt them).
The point was that for flyers using United's "buddy" rates, the airline requires a higher standard of dress (for men and women, boys and girls). It was not that that what the girls were wearing was objectionable but that it was not up to the code. The airline didn't explain how they created their code and frankly, I don't think they have to.
They make their employees wearing uniforms and I would think that getting a big discount for your family might be worth dressing up more than you normally would to fly.
One key issue here is this debate over whether leggings are pants or not. To me, they are not. I noticed at Facebook that many adult women say yes, they are pants and worn with a long tunic and boots are an acceptable outfit in public. I would agree but the majority of women and girls who wear leggings are not wearing long tunics.
The nature of leggings is that they are very clingy. I think some of that is Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Annual "Who Can Wear What" Discussion: