Kelly-Rose Bradford: Penguin jim-jams? There's the line, right there

Feb 2 2010 Surrey Herald

ON THE day the news broke that a south Wales branch of Tesco was imposing a dress code, I had outdone myself in terms of school run outfit - and this was in the afternoon, not even the morning - sporting wet hair, slippers and boots (it can be done) mismatched pyjamas and a trench coat.

So while I was making my apologies to the other mums and dads at the school gate (one of whom graciously said it was such a 'look' that he envisaged other parents copying it in due course), customers at the St Mellons store in Cardiff were being instructed to be appropriately attired when shopping - and that meant no pyjamas or nightwear.

Visitors to the store were confronted with a sign proclaiming: 'To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others, we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted)'.

Of course, what Tesco deems as appropriate dress is anyone's guess - perhaps evening dress for post-six o'clock shopping trips or a morning suit before lunchtime? What about nude shopping? Wasn't there a recent trend for that? And surely offence and embarrassment is entirely subjective, anyway? I recall as a child being mortified by my mother's predilection for head scarves - but I doubt anyone else was.

But supermarkets?

And offence or embarrassment?

What next, table legs being covered for fear of scandalising polite society?

Despite being the most pernickety person ever over standards of dress (regular readers will recall Boy was not allowed jeans until he turned six, and then they were carefully policed - very dark denim, skinny legged and securely belted) even I find it ludicrous that a supermarket would try to dictate what its customers can and cannot wear. Especially as I own a pair of Tesco pyjamas.

If this were to be rolled out nationwide, I envisage some interesting scenes at my local store, which is adjacent to a hospital, and where I have often seen dressing gown-clad shoppers, or patients being pushed down the aisles in wheelchairs and pyjamas.

What of them? Out on their ear? And what about the current fashion for 80s-style unstructured, fluid jersey pieces? Pyjama-like in the extreme.

Or perhaps it's just the less stylish PJ that Tesco objects to - the cutesy look, which, one St Mellons shopper, resplendent in, was quick to defend: "I've got lovely pairs of pyjamas with bears and penguins on them," she said. "I've worn my best ones today, just so I look tidy."

Who can argue with that?