London’s Harrod’s has a reputation for selling almost absurd–OK just absurd–luxury goods to the richiest of the rich, and for years has enforced a dress code on its customers; one which Vice writer Oobah Butler decided to test.
How does it work? Are there bouncers turfing out 15-year-old emo kids because they have a few rips in their jeans; rejecting those adult men who buy and then actually wear lycra shorts for their ten-minute cycle to work; discriminating against crust-punks for being gross?
Butler kitted himself out in several different outfits that he seems to think are representative of subcultures that could be discriminated against by such a code. (For what it’s worth, the current code seems pretty tame: something like wear a shirt, preferably without any rude words written on it.) The only one that gets him turned away is his “cyber goth” costume, which does not, in fact, include a shirt. The others, including a barefoot hippie, get in, and seem to be served gamely by Harrod’s staff. Seems like anything goes, these days.
