Jess Glynne has raised eyebrows after sharing an Instagram post saying she’d experienced “pure discrimination” from a London restaurant, which turned her away because she was wearing a hoodie.
On Monday night, the Hold My Hand singer claimed she’d been refused entry by staff at Sexy Fish restaurant in Mayfair because of how she was dressed.
Sharing a photo of her outfit, which included a grey hoodie, black baseball cap and trainers, she wrote: “Dear @sexyfishlondon I turned up to your restaurant looking like this and you looked me and my friend up and down and said no you can’t come in and your restaurant was EMPTY.
“I then went to Amazonico [another Mayfair restaurant] who greeted me and my friend with pure joy and we had a banging meal with wicked service.”
Jess continued: “@Sexyfishlondon please check yourself if this is how you treat people cause it’s rude, off putting, embarrassing and most definitely not inviting.
“We were made to wait and 2 members of staff came to look at us and make a decision based on our appearance.”
Signing off with a kissing emoji, Jess added: “I think the attitude of your staff needs to change as that was pure discrimination. Thanks and bye.”
It didn’t take long for people on social media to share their thoughts on Jess’ tweet, pointing out that staff members enforcing a dress code against a successful, white celebrity probably didn’t constitute “pure discrimination”:
Others have been putting their own spin on Jess’ post, by sharing their own “experiences” of being turned away because of their attire...
In a statement, Sexy Fish told HuffPost UK: “Sexy Fish supports individuality and style but respectfully ask all our guests to acknowledge our dress code which is published on our website.
“We are huge fans of Jess, and her music and feel sorry that she feels that she has been treated insensitively.”