A New Zealand cinema in Hawera has banned people from wearing pyjamas, dirty boots and even onesies in a move designed to improve the dress standards of the cinema.
The Hawera cinema claims that it has been seeing an increased number of customers arriving at the cinema in their “nightwear” and wanted to ensure that their dress standards remained at a sociable level for the rest of the patrons who opted not to put on their evening gowns.
It announced the ban via a Facebook post saying that the wearing of evening gowns, pyjamas, onesies and other nightwear didn’t fit the dress code with one of their responses stating that they didn’t believe it gave off the right “vibe”. The full post read,
“Just a friendly reminder that we have a dress code at Hawera Cinemas. It’s simple really, as long as you are appropriately dressed and are wearing clean footwear you are good to go.”
Before specifying at the bottom that they did not want anyone wearing, “pyjamas, dressing gowns or dirty gumboots – no matter how cute they are!”
The manager of the cinema, Kirsty Bourke, said that the reasoning behind the post was due to “an increase in customers wearing pyjamas and customers wearing dirty gumboots and work boots”, continuing to say that they would, therefore, be adopting a dress code as many restaurants and clubs also do.
The post was accompanied by an image clearly banning pyjamas and the post has caused much debate across social media.
Some locals were supportive of the ban saying that “pj’s are bed wear only and gumboots are for farm wear” with another saying that she “can’t believe this even needs to be stated.
However, there was certainly a fair share of backlash regarding the ban with one person questioning whether the cinema was the “fashion police”.
As the debate has continued across Facebook, the cinema maintains that they are yet to receive any direct complaints from members of the public since the announcement was made. However, she was more than happy to send out a warning stating anyone that attempts to go to the Hawera Cinema in their pyjamas “will be refused entry”.
She continued to say that it was merely out of respect for all other patrons attending the cinema much like a restaurant or club. A dress code is designed to ensure that the environment fostered within the venue is supportive of all patrons and not such that others can feel undervalued.