As a rising star, Turkey has two popular brand names. The first is the country’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the other is Turkish Airlines. Whether or not one is critical of the ruling party’s policies, Erdogan’s name has worldwide recognition, and he sets the image for present day Turkey — a conservative family man, a pious Muslim and married to a woman dressed under Islamic code and covered from head to toe. In fact, since the Erdogan government came to power over a decade ago, the spouses of nearly all cabinet members follow Emine Erdogan's dress code, as does the first lady, President Abdullah Gul’s wife.

But Turks reacted fiercely last week when they suddenly learned that Turkish Airlines planned to change its flight attendants' uniforms. Although it's unclear how the airline decided to give the job to Dilek Hanif, a well-known haute couture designer, Turks active on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, first focused their criticism on the selection process of the designer. She was publicly slandered by other famous Turkish designers and ordinary people on the street, but it remains unclear what expectations Turkish Airlines set for her. Turkish media reported that Hanif says the uniforms are not yet finalized, and that she has no clue how pictures were leaked to the social media.

Turks on social media complained that these supposedly new uniforms not only looked extremely conservative, but also were inefficient for food and drink service. People didn't like the fabric's dark colors and intense motifs. They criticized the skirts for falling too far below the knee, with thick black socks that don't show any skin. Many didn't like the big butterfly tie on the shirts over the vests. For the male flight attendants’ uniform, the criticism was no different. In essence, Turks argued that this outfit doesn't represent the clothing style of modern day Turkey.

Beauty is, of course, a subjective concept that varies from one person to another. For Erdogan, for example, his wife has beauty and elegance, as do the spouses of his cabinet members. I personally would never want to criticize a woman for what she wears — but this friction between Turkey's observant Muslims and secular masses remains a thorny issue, and with the uniform debate, it was on the verge of creating another social crisis in an already intensely polarized nation.