Bookseller Cover Up

With bookselling Britney wannabes coming to work in low-cut pants and navel-baring shirts, Shirley Russell, owner of Catch Our Rainbow in Torrance, Calif., turned to the Association of Booksellers for Children's listserv for advice on writing a dress code for employees.

Appropriate dress turned out to be a hot-button issue from coast to coast. Even longtime booksellers like Joan Belongia, who has owned Brown Street Books in Rhinelander, Wisc., for 10 years and has long had a dress policy in place, is experiencing problems. "I have two high school juniors, who are excellent employees, except for their dress," Belongia told PW. "The clothing issue I've had to address with adults, too. I'm in a conservative community. When you bend over and reach up, no customer should see skin or the crack in your butt."

Like Belongia, Russell doesn't mind casual dress. "Right now," she said, as she talked with PW, "I have on a shirt and shorts and sandals with a strap. It's a children's bookstore, and we're down on the floor a lot." For her, however, there's a big difference between casual and the kinds of clothes some of her college-age employees were wearing: shirts with tiny straps so the bra straps show, bare midriff and pants with jagged hems.

Late last month, Russell asked her employees to sign a dress code, which she shared with the ABC listserv. The dress code calls for them to wear neatly hemmed pants (that come to the top of their shoes), blouses that tuck in with wide straps, logo clothing only if it directly relates to children's books, and low-heeled shoes with a back support strap or enclosed heel. "A couple of employees grumbled a little bit," said Russell, "but it seems like everybody's come around." On the advice of another bookseller, Russell suggested that her staff keep a pair of slacks and comfortable shoes at the store to change into from their street clothes.