Leggings are definitely not pants

In December, a dress code revision the Montana State Legislature was proposing came under attack and made national news.

At the time, I didn’t give it much of a second thought. To me, what the legislature was proposing made sense, however, others apparently did not feel the same way. I feel that when you are in that kind of a position, you should dress appropriately. Most of the controversy was aimed at the portions of the dress code where women’s attire was discussed.

One of the biggest parts of the controversy came under this portion of the dress code, “Business formal for woman is defined as a suit or dress slacks, skirt, jacket, and dress blouse or suit-lie dress and appropriate shoes (flip flops, tennis shoes and open-toe sandals are not considered appropriate). Leggings are not considered dress pants.” Another portion that was scrutinized was “Women should be sensitive to skirt lengths and necklines.”

The policy also stated “Legislative staff, members of the media, interns and aides must also abide by this policy if on the floor while the bodies are gaveled into session.”

I have worked for many places that had dress codes and none of the things mentioned in Montana’s dress code offended me.

To me, it is all common sense. I was always told to dress for the job you want to have or for the one you want to keep. I think this is just good advice overall.

I also was told at a couple of places I worked that the length of your skirt should always be longer than where the longest of your fingers touches the side of your leg.

This also made sense to me since I wouldn’t feel comfortable in a skirt shorter than that anyway. Needless to say, I have worked for places were dress codes were enforced and didn’t have a problem.

I guess what really upset some was the wording about leggings not being pants. Once again, I agree. I know this may surprise many because I do where leggings. However, I have never worn leggings without a dress or extremely long sweater over the top of them, at least not outside of my home. Do not get me wrong some of my legging are thicker than my skinny jeans and dress pants, to those I do not care if you wear them as pants. I am talking about the thin leggings, the ones that are basically a substitute for tights or nylons, but much warmer in the winter. In my opinion, these kinds of leggings should never be worn without a dress of long sweater over them.

To prove my point, I must tell you about a recent trip Kmart. As I was walking into Kmart, I was walking behind a lady who choose to wear leggings as pants. She had on a sweatshirt and gray leggings. The problem with the grey leggings was that you could see right through them, enough that I could tell her underwear were pink and had “juicy” written on the back of them. Really? I couldn’t believe why anyone would want to leave the house like that. Did she not notice they were see through? I don’t know, but this happened a few weeks ago and the image is still engraved in my mind.

To make matters worse, my five-year-old son noticed to. So I had to try to explain to him why her underwear were showing. Talk about tough.

Apparently, this is not uncommon, when I was trying to find research on the Montana Legislature’s proposed dress code I wanted to see if others were having issues with leggings so I typed in thin leggings in Google only to see hundreds of photos like the image I had just described.

This all leads me to my final point, which you may or may not agree with -- Leggings are not pants.