Cat Sullivan needed to pick an outfit for her Thanksgiving trip.
After hearing Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy urge travelers to dress more respectfully at the airport, she decided to lean into “malicious compliance” and raid her stash of over-the-top outfits.
Should she go with the satiny white gown, the Barbie-pink power suit, or the feathery green cocktail dress?
That’s how Sullivan, a Los Angeles-based TV producer and internet comedian, ended up sprinting through an airport concourse in sneakers and a sweeping Old Hollywood-style gown.
“I never bail on a bit,” she wrote in another video, showing herself shivering in the same dress during the icy walk from the plane at Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming.
Sullivan said in an interview that her experience shows “how insane this directive is.”
“The dress was incredibly impractical; I think it was like 30 degrees when I landed,” she said. “It was definitely not the right thing to be wearing.”
Before the holiday, Duffy held a news conference suggesting travelers should at least wear a decent shirt and jeans, building on his earlier push to bring back a “Golden Age of Travel.”
“I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave all a little better,” he said. “Let’s try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport.”
On social media, plenty of travelers essentially replied: No thanks.
“I will be wearing my slippers,” one woman wrote on TikTok, questioning why the government cared about her airport loungewear.
Many pointed to delays, extra fees, stripped-down amenities and limited service — hardly the kind of experience that inspires dressing to the nines.
“I should wear my nicest suit so I can sit in someone else’s Biscoff crumbs,” comedian Michelle Wolf said on Instagram, rattling off the many indignities of air travel.
“We’re not dressing for the air travel we want, we’re dressing for the air travel we have,” she added.
What to wear at the airport has been debated for years, long before it became a talking point for government officials.
Some commentators praised Duffy’s recent remarks. A New York Post opinion piece fumed about sloppy travelers: “They’re wearing stained Garfield pajama pants and dragging their pillows and blankets through Terminal 2.”
Others proudly shared photos of their more polished, Duffy-approved outfits at the airport.
Lifestyle creator and life coach Sammy Knight posted a joking response saying she would now “actually be exclusively wearing pajamas to the airport.” In reality, she said in an interview, she usually opts for sweatpants, leggings or jeans with a sweatshirt.
“You already spent so much money on the tickets and the whole process of traveling,” said Knight, who lives in Rhode Island. “It’s never bothered me to see someone comfortable before. I think it’s absurd.”
Some travelers framed their wardrobe choices as a form of political pushback. The hashtag #pajamaresistance began to pop up.
“Triggering Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy,” reads the text on a TikTok posted by Democratic activist Johnny Palmadessa, 24, of Philadelphia.
In the clip, he shows off his red plaid pajama pants at the airport in Portland, Maine, while audio of Duffy’s Thanksgiving travel wardrobe request plays.
Palmadessa said he typically wears pajama pants when he flies and happened to be in them when he first heard about the dress-up push.
In an interview, he said Duffy and President Donald Trump should focus more on lowering travel costs so families could even consider splurging on nicer outfits.
“The priorities of this administration are so not straight,” he said.
Robyn Iacona, an administrative assistant from Louisiana, said in an email that she chose jogger-style pajama pants, a T-shirt and compression socks for her return flight from Dublin on Friday.
“Civility starts with being a good human and leading by example,” she wrote. “And not with whether or not one wears pajama pants and slippers on a long haul flight.”
Benét J. Wilson, a longtime aviation journalist, knew she wanted to respond to the “Golden Age of Travel” campaign on her Monday trip but couldn’t decide whether to dress up in a black velvet dress or dress down in pajamas. She flipped a coin.
“Pajamas won,” she said.
Her travel day started with a 6:30 a.m. flight; by afternoon, after multiple delays, she was waiting on her third plane. In her view, the government has “bigger fish to fry” than policing passengers’ outfits.
“Good thing I decided to wear pajamas and slippers,” she wrote in a social media post about the disrupted trip, tagging Duffy. “This may be my new travel uniform.”
