Should mum really have been kicked out of homeware shop for wearing this outfit?
A MOTHER says she was left humiliated when she was kicked out of a shop for wearing an ‘inappropriate’ denim crop top.
Leanne Kennedy claimed she was told to ‘put a shirt on or leave’ because her outfit was ‘against company policy’.
The incident happened at The Range, a home and garden shop in Gosport, Hampshire. Mrs Kennedy, 30, was wearing black trousers and a crop top that exposed part of her midriff and most of her back.
She was browsing gardening equipment with her nine-month-old daughter AthenaMae when a woman member of staff confronted her in front of other shoppers.
At first Mrs Kennedy thought it was a joke, but was told: ‘If you don’t like it, you know where the door is.’
Mrs Kennedy, a professional singer from nearby Fareham, said yesterday: ‘It must have been about 2pm, and the weather was 24C (75F). I was only in there for five minutes and had picked up a few bits when a woman from the shop approached me.
‘She asked me to put a shirt on or leave because what I was wearing was not appropriate and was against company policy. I thought she was joking and I didn’t know how to react. When I tried to laugh it off, she said that if a man came in without a top on, they would say the same thing.
‘I was humiliated, my outfit was just a denim crop top with long flowing black trousers, hardly revealing or risque.
‘Perhaps I could understand it if I was in a bikini, but I wasn’t, and I was totally embarrassed in front of lots of other customers.
‘What’s the difference between my back showingplay? And and why another does person’sit matter legs whenon dis- I’m there to spend money? The woman who approached me wasn’t very discreet. I was in such shock, I just left in a hurry.’ She said the woman told her a sign outside the store displayed its clothing policy, which said customers must wear shirts. Mrs Kennedy added: ‘I was humiliated and felt traumatised. I’m a person who takes care of my appearance, I’m fit and healthy. People were staring at me, I felt like I had no choice but to put my things back and just leave the store.’ Mrs Kennedy, whose 35-year-old husband James runs a personal training company, later complained and received an apology. A spokesman for The Range said: ‘We do not have a specific dress code in place that would prevent you from shopping with the photographed outfit. I apologise for any inconvenience caused on this occasion.’