Scholar Mary Beard was ordered to strip down to her "scrappy undies" in front of "embarrassed" passengers at Heathrow Airport.
The Cambridge professor was seen by fellow passengers in just "a little black vest and no bra" after security mistook a tunic as a jacket.
The academic said she "wasn't easily humiliated but it was a surprise" following the incident during the security check this morning.
Taking to Twitter to explain the incident she wrote: "I know rules are rules (and we all depend on airport security) but was a bit surpised to be told to take off what I think is a 'tunic' (they thought was a 'jacket') at Heathrow security this morning, down to my scrappy undies.
"Much to curiosity/embarrassment of other passengers!"
One Twitter user replied: "Your British airport security is as utterly bonkers OTT as their US equivalent.
"It never fails to mystify (and madden) aircrew from other European countries. So sorry this happened to you; at our age, publicly parading in our undies is the wrong sort of thrill."
The telly star - who appeared in BBC show Civilisations - replied: "my little black vest, no bra, not a good look!"
And she said she had told staff that she only had underwear on beneath the outfit.
She said: "To be honest I'm not very easily humiliated, but it was a surprise! Staff polite but insistent (following instructions, I guess, don't want to get them into trouble)."
In another tweet, she added: "it was a definitional issue in part, though I did say that I only had undies underneath! A mistake at root, but shouldn't happen."
But when asked if she'd "made a fuss", she replied: "I did demur!"
Author Caroline Criado-Perez shared the academic's tweet and added: "Sounds to me like security who don’t understand women’s clothes."
Dr Heather Parry added: "Why would you want to try to humiliate Mary Beard when she is a National Treasure?"
And illustrator Katherine Hardy joked: "A extremely jetlagged person we both know once caused a security alert in an airport by whipping their top off to prove there were no bombs under there to avoid an "unnecessary" pat down."
On Twitter, the airport apologised and asked for further details about the incident before telling Mirror.co.uk: “Our colleagues work incredibly hard to keep Britain’s skies safe and any passenger is able to be searched in private. We apologise that this did not happen in this instance."
Prof Beard said she was "tough" and had "no desire to see the staff concerned told off" and so refused to release which terminal the incident occurred in.
She told Mirror.co.uk: "My point has been made. It was no doubt a 'mistake' of some sort...and I have no interest in getting the security person into trouble, who has a tougher and less comfortable and less well paid job than I do."
