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Dress Code at Leadership Conference

Written by Frosty Rose and Parsons Green

Ah, Leadership Conference. Where the best of the best in Mary Kay, the directors and nationals, gather for three days of fellowship, pageantry, and glamour. With a heaping side dish of body shaming, hand wringing, pearl-clutching, and 1950s housewife gossip. If you thought MK was all about empowering women, well, I hate to break it to you, but that only goes as far as the boundaries of “appropriate behavior.” Step out of line? You’re going to get shamed.

Check out these conversations around dress code violations that happened at Leadership, or, *gasp* while traveling to and from this vaunted gathering. Gotta maintain that image, after all. What on earth would the sainted Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver Louis Miller Hallenbeck Ash say about these gross violations of one of her cardinal commandments?

30 Comments

    1. Popinki

      And not just any pants: JEANS, the worst kind of pants!!!

      (You see Pope Francis surrounded by by people in jeans and even more casual wear all the time and no one puts up a squawk. But meet the nepotism hire CEO of a MLM in jeans? Summon the Inquisition!)

    1. ElleBee

      From what I’ve seen, the company has switched to just a sales director jacket, even for the NSDs. The SDs and NSDs literally wear these jackets over any dress or with any shirt/skirt combo. And don’t get me started on the footwear! Honestly, I think most of these directors (often the younger ones) would look better in their chosen outfit WITHOUT the jacket. Imagine the gasping and pearl clutching that would go on if they dropped the “uniform” jackets entirely.

    1. NayMKWay

      Have you got the vapours, Kristen? Have a seat before you collapse. Oops, tug down your skirt; I caught a glimpse of knee! I’ll fan you with my Sharpe™ Life Goals Notebook while I send someone’s husband to bring water. Perhaps your corset is laced too tight?

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  1. Data Junkie

    I will argue that dress codes, awards, seminar, leadership conferences etc. simply builds a giant framework to continually distract IBCs and SDs from discovering that they are indeed the true, target customer of Mary Kay, and they are basically recruiting more MK customers for free. Think about this: No outside sales are necessary for the MK compensation/bonus plan to function fully.

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  2. Heather

    You aren’t the royal family, Diane Autry, who are required to wear sheer hosiery when wearing a dress or skirt. But that’s the royal family, and MK may *THINK* they are royals…. they aren’t.

    Hosiery has gone out of fashion. Sure, some women still wear them, and I wear tights in the colder weather with shirts and dresses.

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  3. Neverpink

    The 1950’s called. They said you’re late to dinner.

    As an aside, do these ladies have nothing better to do than to gossip on Facebook about how other people are dressing? Sheesh. Get some hobbies!

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  4. Coralrose

    You need to wear skirts when traveling because “You might be the only Bible someone ever reads” ??? What?🙄🙄
    I must’ve skipped the part of the Bible that said “And, Jesus sayeth unto the crowds, “When traveling by automobile or aeroplane, women must don skirts and hose in order to express their holiness”.

    1. Mountaineer95

      “Mary Kay would always say “sometimes you are the only Bible some people read”.”

      Yeah, that stood out to me. The degree of “holier than thou” is THROUGH THE ROOF with this. But also, look at how it’s worded. Supposedly, Mary Kay would “always say”…this implies that the woman who posted that comment was in Mary Kay’s company multiple times, at least enough to have heard MK “always” say that. How the hell does this woman know what Mary Kay “always” said?

    2. Not a Bot

      That stood out to me too. The Bible tells people not to lie to each other and put others’ interests ahead of your own (and conning people into buying inventory or signing up go against this). Wearing a skirt is their own rule, not the Bible’s, but they throw that in there to make it seem godly. Body shaming about wearing hose because your legs may not be perfect (but of course you won’t have that problem if you wear pants). Of course it is more important to project the ‘image’ than be comfortable while travelling so keep those skirts and hose for the long car ride or plane ride. There seem to be a lot of company rules for a ‘business trip’ paid for by the director herself. I do believe in looking professional at work events, but I believe dictating the exact uniform is controlling and that dress pants can be very professional. I thought the comment about MK women cutting in line and pushing into elevators was the only legitimate thing that would be a problem (I guess grown women who are told to be pushy to get customers are pushy all the time).

      I also thought it was funny when somebody says ‘my heart breaks’ over women wearing pants. Interesting thing for your heart to break over with all the tragedies and problems in the world.

      1. Destiny Angel

        The on-going war in Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the bus crashing into a Laval daycare killing two children and injuring more pale into insignificance beside women in pants.

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  5. Destiny Angel

    Mary Kay would always say “sometimes you are the only Bible some people read”.

    As an atheist, this is not an appealing image of Christianity these ladies display.

    The idolising of Mary Kay Wagner Rogers Eckman Weaver Louis Miller Hallenbeck Ash, the lying, the greed, the judgements, the outward display of piety, and so on. I have a feeling that tables would be overturned and a hand-braided whip would be in evidence if Jesus ever attended one of these events.

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