Originally Posted by Podracer

My answer to this is that it is entirely self imposed. It is pilots themselves that are holding us back, its not exactly the company and its definitely not the public. Airline pilots are a very homogenous profession: lots of square straight white men with military backgrounds. Thus we have a lot of shared backgrounds and opinions on what we believe looks good, while the dissenters just go along with it cuz they are outnumbered or don't feel its worth trying to go against the "mainstream" of airline pilot culture. Its not that the public demands we look the way we do, its not even the company fully, it is mainly flight ops. Pilots just be looking in the mirror and saying "yes i am the epitome of profesional", then expecting everyone to copy their look to join their ranks.

Just look at all the threads this year alone with hundreds of comments with pilots arguing back and forth over how many buttons a blazer should have, why only mustaches are professional, or the importance of hats. If pilot appearance is ever to evolve, its your fellow pilots that you need to convince.