At Wimbledon, Men—Not Women—Get the Fashion Police Treatment

Lewis Hamilton before getting turned away from sitting at Centre Court. Photo: @lewishamilton/Instagram 

Lewis Hamilton was really excited to watch Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer play at the Wimbledon final on Sunday. The Formula One race car driver wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of his ticket that he’s “honoured to have been invited” to watch from the the Royal Box. Unfortunately, he missed all the action as his outfit wasn’t up to snuff.

“Due to a misunderstanding over dress code, he is disappointed to have missed the final,” his rep said in a statement. Hamilton, who dated Nicole Scherzinger on-and-off for years and counts Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid as friends, wore a a floral button-down shirt and a fedora. "If he [Hamilton] was not adequately dressed you could infer that he would not have been let in, but we do not comment on our guests,“ a Wimbledon spokesperson said. “If he came without a jacket, tie, or shoes he would have had two choices — not staying or going to get some extra stuff.”

David Beckham, Bradley Cooper, and Benedict Cumberbatch all wore suits and ties. Photos: Getty Images

Many high-profile stars complied with the restrictions including David Beckham accessorizing with a tie bar, Benedict Cumberbatch wearing a slate blue suit, Bradley Cooper in a three-piece sand-colored suit and aviators, and more. In the past, Centre Court seating banned jeans, sports shorts, collarless shirts, and trainers but loosened up in recent years to just restrict "ripped jeans" or dirty trainers. Yet, at least for guests of the crown it seems the old rules still apply. Interestingly, Drake was a guest of the Williams family on three separate days at the tournament and wore sweatsuits and sneakers on each occasion.

Former pro Andy Roddick was also on the receiving end of fashion criticism. Serving as a commentator on the BBC, viewers took to Twitter to tell him he looked slovenly for not wearing a tie and leaving his collared shirt unbuttoned.

Women are continuously the subjects of fashion policing and men seem to be able to get away with wearing just about anything. Recently, Adam Sandler and Kevin James showed up to a movie photo call in their gym clothes while Selena Gomez was dressed to the nines in a silky ensemble. Best and worst dressed lists call out women for their style highs and lows but guys slip by unscathed. Roddick took the Twitter shaming in stride, but the lobbed insults were definitely still weak compared to what females face.

And as devastating as it must’ve been for Hamilton to be turned away from the grounds and miss Djokovic defeat Federer in four sets, the fact that a guy is the subject of a dress code debacle is kind of refreshing. From crop top condemnations to detention slips for maxi dresses, it’s women and girls that seem to always be the center of clothing issues. The most high profile of these issues being the recent Cannes debacle. At the annual film festival, women were turned away from premieres for not wearing high heels. Actress Emily Blunt called the incident “extremely disappointing” and added that “everyone should wear flats, to be honest, at the best of times.” She continued, “You kind of think that there’s these new waves of equality.”

And with Hamilton being subjected to a dress code denunciation, it seems one step closer to being so — but wouldn’t it be great if everyone was free to wear what they want?

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