Take-off mode

Manpriya Singh 

Why should anyone dress up to board a plane?  As if the ruckus over red carpet appearances wasn’t enough, there are airport looks to fuss over! 

Perhaps all the viewers identified with Shahid Kapoor’s wife Mira Rajput, when she admitted to hating two things about Bollywood; airport looks being right on top. She’s hasn’t been the only one in the industry to have both deplored and admitted to the pressure of looking good at the airport, during a flight and after you’ve landed! 

Kareena questioned earlier in the year, pointing to silly trends in the industry. “Why should we be dressing up to go on a flight?” Well, because there is the paparazzi; there’s fashion police and there are style bloggers! Taking a look at some of the recent airport looks of B-town’s style icons and what should travel outfits ideally look like? 

B-town stylist speaks up

Ironically, Bollywood stylist Ashley Rebello (he dresses up Salman Khan in almost every movie and off it as well) is about to board a five-hour- long flight when we call him up to talk about the airport style. There’s no denying the pressure, which naturally results from a very keen interest in what stars do, especially off the screen. 

He opines, “Goes without saying comfort should be of paramount importance and kept in mind before dressing up for any occasion, and more so before traveling. If you notice, mostly Kareena and Katrina are known for their airport styles; they always focus on comfort and classic combination of tracks, jacket and sneakers.” Personally speaking, “he makes it a point to include tracks, tee with a jacket. A jacket is a must so it can be conveniently off and on depending on the cold and hot areas of the airport and plane.”  

He maintains that just because clothes should be comfortable doesn’t mean they should be dowdy or at any point of time, ‘not stylish’! 

A trend from Hollywood 

There is no denying the already existing fracas over Hollywood stars and what they travel in. “At an event or the red carpet, stars make such structured appearances and look like clones of each other! It’s only while they are boarding a flight or heading to gym or stepping out for a casual family dinner that you get to see and judge their real sense of dressing,” designer Ritu Nagpal, who runs the label Reet, tries to explain the sudden surge of interest in stars’ airport or even gym looks. 

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Stars admit to the pressure

Karan Johar has already shared his witty take on the issue in one his tweets earlier this year that read, Dear Airport Look...I can see the pressure is getting to you...don’t worry the gym look is soon going to take over. 

Whoever follows Bollywood even remotely will know the bad press Kareena invited for not nailing a look while boarding a flight. Dressed in a black wrap dress styled rather oddly with pumps and a black baseball cap, the actress invited sarcasm if not ire. Her honest reaction to the same went viral in a video where she says, ‘We should dress like normal human beings. Awful’. Why should we have it? Why should we dress up to go on a flight? 

But there’s pressure. It has to be. Fine. 

But we should be as normal. You should allow us to be normal. Jeans, T-shirt… whatever!”