Ladies, would you want to go to a bar and feel the need to worry about dress code? Recently, a Twitter user Sangeeta K Nag had to justify her clothing choice when she was allegedly denied entry at IVY-The Island Bar in New Delhi‘s Vasant Kunj area. Reason being that she was wearing an ethnic dress. Who would believe her until we watch the video posted by Sangeeta herself on Twitter. Now, going viral, in the video, we see an employee of the bar saying to her, “ethnic is something we don’t allow.” Women have so much to deal within the system, and now clothing discrimination is a thing too?
“Denied entry as ethnic wear is not allowed! A restaurant in India allows ‘smart casuals’ but not Indian wear! Whatever happened to pride in being Indian? Take a stand!” Sangeeta wrote on Twitter while sharing the video
Watch the video here:
Sangeeta went to educate these people about the dress code policy of the bar which clearly read: “Dress code to be followed. Smart casuals only/ no shorts/slippers”.
Also read: Equating Safety with Clothing: The wrong and right of things
After the video garnered attention on social media and a lot of criticism, the bar also apologised to Sangeeta for their unfair behaviour. The restaurant responded on their official Facebook page on Saturday after drawing flak online saying, “The gentleman in the video is a new team member and his opinion in the video is his alone and in no way a representation of my or the teams’ view on the dress code restrictions. Nowhere in our company policy does it say that we will refuse ethnic wear.”
“In light of the recent incident at Ivy, please accept this sincere apology from our end. We deeply regret and discourage such behaviour and are genuinely empathetic towards the sentiments and feelings of everyone that this situation may have hurt,” they wrote an apology on Facebook.
Calling it ironic that Indian clothes were not allowed in India, one user tweeted:
Another user accused them of ‘colonial hangover’
And, many argued that their license should be cancelled
Owner Saurabh Khanijo quoted by the Indian Express saying, “Nowhere in our company policy does it say that we will refuse ethnic wear. You can be rest assured that the necessary action will be taken at our end to enhance the team’s training and client handling skills.”
When asked what action has been taken against the staff who appeared in video, Khanijo claimed, “Mistakes do happen” and added, “He has done a mistake he is feeling pathetic about it. And has apologised.”
Something similar happened in 2017 when a Kolkata man was stopped from entering Quest Mall because he was wearing a Dhoti.
Feature Image Credit: Twitter
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