Posted July 25, 2007 – If you’re planning to visit the White House, make sure you show up in appropriate attire. Otherwise, you’ll be asked to come another day.

I noticed there are new signs posted, alerting visitors to the West Wing that the following attire has been outlawed: jeans, tank tops, mini-skirts and flip-flops. 

Perhaps, the fact that four members of the 2006 Northwestern University’s women’s championship lacrosse team posed with the president at the White House in flip-flops and sandals caused the “clothing police” to kick into high gear. 

 This new dress requirement will be an effective way to limit the number of visitors.  I rarely see folks during the summer taking snap shots outside the Pennsylvanian Avenue address who don’t have on at least one of the newly banned items.  No one comes to Washington dressed for success anymore. 

April Ryan, White House correspondent for National Urban Network, and I discussed our sandals in reaction to the new requirements.  “They (colleagues) tried to call these flip-flop’s,” she told me, pointing to a fashionable black sandal.  Considering I too had on shoes with out a back strap, we agreed our footwear did NOT belong in the flip-flop category. 

I imagine that if one person wore all of the prohibited items at the same time, he/she would look like he/she were ready to cut the lawn, or attend a cookout or baseball game.

Before folks get their halters in a knot, this isn’t the first White House to set guidelines for staff and or visitors.  First Lady Nancy Reagan didn’t approve of women wearing pants, so skirts were the order of the ’80s White House. 

For me, no flip-flops is fine. I’m a shoe-lover and while I do own my share of flip-flops, the other 200-plus pairs of shoes in my closet aren’t.