Do dress codes deny our human rights?

● Have you ever been shopping in your pyjamas? I haven’t, but I can understand how it might happen. During lockdown, memes galore featured people forgetfully attending Zoom meetings in their pyjamas, or worse.

Speaking of pyjamas, a viral image of a poster has been flying around on Twitter. On Thursday, my colleague Cebelihle Bhengu reported on TimesLIVE about a poster, with Spar branding, that read: “Dear customers. No pajamas or nightgowns allowed.”

So far no-one knows if this is real. No Spar franchisee has admitted to placing the poster and no comment has been issued from headquarters. Public response, however, has been loud.

Some were outraged: “Leave people alone to do what they wanna do. People go to the shops with barely clothes on but they find it to be OK to let them shop.”

Others commended the policy, saying it was unhygienic to go shopping in one’s sleepwear. Would that also apply if you had slept in your clothes and gone to the shops the next morning without changing, I wonder?

It is an interesting debate. Does anyone have the right to dictate what people wear in public, provided they are not indecently exposing themselves? Many people’s pyjamas are a lot fancier than the scruffy sweats I sometimes go out in.

Incidentally, pedants might have objected to the poster because of the spelling of “pajamas”. South African spellcheckers tend automatically to change this to “pyjamas”, but actually both are correct. In North America they favour “pajamas” while most other countries use the British “pyjamas”. The word is of Persian origin, and according to the Online Etymology Dictionary went through several spellings after being introduced into English. In 1800 it was “pai jamahs”, in 1834 “pigammahs” and in 1840 “peijammahs”. Only in the second part of the 19th century did we get pajamas and pyjamas, which are now mostly “PJs” or “jammies”.

As for the nightgown, defined since 1400 as a “loose gown for putting on at night,” again it seems unfair to ban what sounds like a perfectly decent body covering from public view. I suppose some “nighties” are so skimpy as to cause a stir in the frozen goods section, but other nightgowns are more substantial, like the dressing gown, which Wikipedia says is also known as a housecoat or morning gown, “similar to a bathrobe but without the absorbent material”.

There is even more transatlantic confusion about robes and gowns than about pyjamas and pajamas. A friend once called me in a panic because she had been given a spa voucher which instructed her to bring her own gown. In her home country, what we call a gown is a robe; a gown is a long, sparkly garment, such as one would wear to the Academy Awards.

Had my friend instead received a Spar voucher, no-one would have minded her arriving in a floor-length designer gown, but a towelling robe might have caused problems.

The word “robe” originally referred to the very dressy loose outer garment worn by royalty. I’m sure no shopkeeper would complain if a king or queen trailed in to buy a loaf of bread while wearing a fur-trimmed robe.

As for gown, the word is also employed to describe that batlike cloak worn by academics on formal occasions. In ancient university towns, it is unlikely that supermarkets do not allow ingress to professors in gowns.

Getting back to nighties and jammies: is it a violation of human rights to demand that customers, guests, visitors and employees adhere to a particular dress code?

In the business world, it is generally accepted that a company can dictate what is and is not acceptable workwear. Schools are largely the same, though there have been several recent legal challenges. A set of guidelines for governing bodies in adopting codes of conduct refers to SA’s bill of rights, and includes this clause: “Freedom of expression is more than freedom of speech. Freedom of expression includes the right to seek, hear, read and wear. Freedom of expression is extended to forms of outward expression as seen in clothing selection and hairstyles.”

I’m not sure where this leaves us in the matter of Spar v Sleepwear, but I’m going to see what happens when I nip out for milk in my PJs.