"Dress code: smart cool casual," advises the website of Manchester's Opus restaurant and nightclub. "No hats, hoods or sportswear." To which may now have to be added: "And if you think you are coming in here in that striped shirt, forget it. And don't change into anything funereal either."
This is nothing to do with aesthetics or fashion. "In my experience, people who wear stripey shirts are trouble causers and scallies," a club manager is alleged to have said to a group of 24 disgruntled revellers, one of them a student decked out in what he thought was a tasteful number made from material with thin bars.
His explanation that the shirt had cost £60 from a House of Fraser store failed to open Opus's doors. Another member of the group was turned away for wearing too much black: Calvin Klein shirt (£80) and Cecil Gee trousers (£60).
"We operate, as do the majority of venues in Manchester, a policy under which some striped clothing, very casual, with certain logos on it, is not welcome in the venues because it might be associated with gangs or potential trouble," said Robin Evans, the operations director.
But what about the black stuff? "It's dark in a nightclub environment and if people go in wearing dark clothing they have the ability to disappear. And that is not conducive to running a safe venue."
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