Dress the way you want to be treated ...

I'm sure what I am about to say will offend some people and I'm sure it will do nothing to change their minds but here goes. My mother's best fashion advice to me was to "dress the way you want to be treated." We live in a society today that dresses more for comfort than for respect. To me, dressing well is not meant to be seen as me "keeping up with" the Jones' or the Kardashians or anyone else. It's not meant to show my wealth or good taste or to outdo anyone else. To me, dressing well means I want to portray a good image to our society, to respect those around me. Don't get me wrong, I am known to let comfortable clothes win out in the right circumstances (I don't work out in heels or wear a ball gown to the ballgame) but appropriate clothes at the appropriate time tells the world "I care about contributing to this society and its occupants." I recently traveled to Atlanta via airplane. Now, the airline industry has made traveling so laborious and downright unpleasant that I hate flying anywhere. Here is the typical sequence of traveling by air nowadays:

• stand in line for 30 minutes just to use one of the kiosks to check in
• stand in line again to drop off your bags
• walk all the way around the airport to get to the security check in
• stand in line 30-60 more minutes to go through security
• remove every piece of metal from your body or risk pat down
• gather all your possessions as well as re-dress yourself after security
• wait again for the flight at a gate where there are not enough uncomfortable seats
• take 30 minutes to board the plane because half the people before you don't know how to pack a carry on bag properly or don't want to check their bags (who can blame them -- it usually costs money and adds an extra half hour to the journey) and spend 15 minutes shoving it into a too small overhead bin until a flight attendant demands they check it
• finally sit in your assigned seat and find your seat mate is not the standard 18.5 inches wide (the width of most airline seats between armrests) and takes up half your space
• flight time in cramped uncomfortable seats for anywhere between an hour and a day
• de-board the plane only to have to walk another mile to the baggage claim (no seats while you wait)

And that is why no one wants to dress up to travel anymore! Wearing heels in those long lines is excruciating and wearing anything of value just begs your seatmate (which for me is usually a crying toddler) to spill red juice all over it.  But to wear PJs or work out clothes to travel in? Oh Hell no!!! Come on, have more respect for yourself and others than that. Find a nice but comfortable dress like the one in the photo above and pair it with some simple accessories. I wore this ensemble to and from my Atlanta destination (yes, you can wear an outfit more than once) and got so many compliments. Plus, I was treated better by not only the airline and TSA staff (most of which have seen plenty of horribly dressed people in their lifetimes) but by passengers too.