Katy Wore Pants on a Mary Kay Stage
Written by Parsons Green
Katy Goldstein is a million dollar sales director with Mary Kay. Katy wore pants when she was speaking at Mary Kay’s recent “directors only” Leadership event. GASP! Since Mary Kay Ash started the company more than 60 years ago, there has been a strict rule requiring everyone to wear skirts at all company events.
Katy shared her thoughts on Facebook. She made history, y’all!!!!!
Ryan Rogers was ecstatic that she wore pants and even showed Katy a text he sent to his wife.
I hope everyone stays excited, because back in 2024, Katy told us that when an MLM goes to an affiliate model, the company is failing. (Hint: Mary Kay’s My Shop program is a giant step toward the affiliate model.)
Reactions to Katy’s pants were primarily positive, with a few naysayers. Pretend-retired nsd Linda Toupin shared a post from Amanda Wright. Amanda posted about her experience at Leadership where she wore a dress. She and her fellow consultants received a lot of attention for their snazzy fashion and jewelry. Linda applauds Amanda’s love of the Mary Kay traditions.
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Among the pro-skirt responses were The Tjelles:
Charlotte Staggs received a compliment from a stranger that she looked SHARP.
Jessica Schultz believes in Ryan Rogers. He would know what his grandmother would have wanted if she were still alive. Jodi Hoffmann was so distracted by those in pants she couldn’t focus or take notes!!!
Kim Frazer took a little break from drinking her Mary Kay Koolaid to praise the company she’s been a part of for 33 years. She loves that Mary Kay gives everyone the flexibility to work their business the way they see fit. (However, she will continue to wear skirts to official functions.) Irene Mantione has been with Mary Kay for 40 years. She believes in the suit. She once received a compliment at the Post Office. (Did she make a sale too?)
Natalie Reed and Susan Mau both knew Mary Kay. Pants at leadership is a slap in the face to Mary Kay.
Rose Guillemaud lives in Canada. Skirts don’t make sense in the cold weather. Heidi Sprague jumps in to mention she lives in Alaska. She will wear skirts in weather that can reach 73 degrees below zero. Mary Kay wanted her consultants in skirts.
Tammy Steele is sad and disappointed that Ryan embraces pants. Speaking at Leadership is an honor. I wonder why she didn’t speak?
Lee Ann Bonnell discussed this with her NSD Karen Ridle. Karen shared that people were so distracted by Katy’s pants that they couldn’t listen to her message.
Christine Van Ackeren thinks Mary Kay would not like the pants.
Miss Go Give Ellen Bowman Cox was not impressed, and feels it was weird that Ryan was even excited about the pants. Could you imagine her rage if Katy did her speech in Spanish?
Katrina Balding Bills adds that as a Mary Kay consultant you can choose how you represent yourself when you work your business. For those taking time to criticize pants, is your datebook filled with at least 30 faces?
Cheri Pierce has written to corporate.
Valerie Bouvier is not a fan of cleavage.
And finally, one comment stood out to me. Tara Duncan does not agree with pants. She is more focused on:
- Decline in corporate customer support.
- Lack of Samples
- The issues with MyShop
- Damaged products
Consultants should be focused on issues that are affecting their business. After all, as a Mary Kay consultant you are an independent contractor relying on a company who can change anything at anytime.
Visit the
I’m just reminded of the bots’ stuff earlier about big girl panties and of how pants cover panties from all angles while skirts don’t
Floppy cleavage popping out of too-low necklines? As long as it’s a dress. Skirts so short they’re a mild breeze away from a Basic Instinct moment? Go for it. Jessica Rabbit slits? Sure. Too small dresses in unflattering styles and no shapewear underneath that make the wearer look like one of those salamis with the strings tied around them? Duh, it’s a dress. Rhinestone cowboy boots and shoes that don’t even fit? As long as the outfit has a single tube around the legs.
Well-fitted, neat, professional slacks? OPEN DECLARATION OF WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make it make sense!
One must ask…who is this dress code intending to impress? Prospective customers? Fellow sales folks? MKC?
You are not lawyers or sportscasters ladies. Respect your audience if want to be taken seriously. (This can be a real challenge in itself when peddling MLM products!)
If you are trying to bring beauty products to prospective customers in their 20s and 30s, you may want to consider styles appropriate to your audience. Wearing pretty, more trendy/classy clothing and make-up will likely go much further to gain customers than wearing a token skirt with an outfit and face-paint that makes you look out of touch.
It seems disrespectful to the attendees of these MK functions, where no customers are present, to ask them to dress so uncomfortably. It makes me ask “why”? And this is a question not asked nearly enough in MLMs like Mary Kay.
One must ask…who is this dress code intending to impress? Prospective customers? Fellow sales folks? MKC?
In the eyes of Mary Kay women there are only two kinds of people outside the MKU
1) businessmen who compliment MKBots of being “sugar sharp”
2) lower status women who gush over how wonderful MKBots are
They rarely talk about men in the service industry and never about “fellow” businesswomen. The mere idea that women can be and are successful without being in Mary Kay breaks their minds.
I would like to see Ms. Mau explain to HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal that she looks unprofessional in her bifurcated uniform as an admiral of the British Royal Navy.
Also, if “pantsuits are never taken seriously and that’s a professional fact”, why have they been a staple of male business fashion since the Victorian Era? Shouldn’t businessmen be rocking them skirts and dresses as well??
I’d love to see them tell former chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, at one time the third most powerful person in the world, that her pantsuits were unprofessional.
And if she wore a dress or skirt, she could have been paid 13% more!!!
Hahahahaha oh Susan Mau. MLM-ers are never taken seriously and THAT is a “professional fact”. Let me guess…she also thinks she actually “owns” her own business. She seems like the kind of hun who has no idea how much she’s truly spending to play “dress up boss babe”, bless her heart.
Kim FrazerI also love to know that women that wear dresses and skirts earn 13% more than women who don’t.
Love some figures to back up that rather dubious factoid, Ms. Frazer.
Heidi’s outfit sounds absolutely hideous with her skirt, long johns and leg warmers. Her customers probably thought she was an idiot. Thank goodness they can just order through MyShop now and skip that weird delivery.
And moon boots! Hope they had high heels! And pantyhose under her longjohns!
Maybe it’s a question of what you’re used to, but I think that someone who goes out in WTF below zero weather just to deliver mascara is an idiot. Not wearing suitable cold weather gear just to Make A Point is double stupid.
Cold weather person here:
TBF, there are cold weather skirts, wearable wraps, and fleece or wool exercise skirts that are functional and designed to fit over fleece leggings, pants, and snow pants. If she has one of those then no problem. Most of them are quite stylish. I have some myself.
But if she tried to fit a polyester skirt or one of those other dumb things seen at Seminar over her snow wear, may the gods of winter have mercy on her soul.
Pants or skirt- it doesn’t matter. All of those in attendance should focus on their failing “businesses”, the monthly struggle to meet ordering quotas and their ever increasing credit card debt.
Amanda Wright looks frumpy and stale. Why would any young person, or anyone looking for fresh, quality makeup, buy from her? I sure wouldn’t.
I never cared about the dress code one way or another. Yes, I understood Mary Kay’s preference and sticking with that. I also understood the need to modernize and also, it’s easy to look professional in pants.
But I think this is important. It is important because it is one more way that Ryan is eroding the company. The sales directors say he’s carrying on the legacy. NO. HE. IS. NOT. He is royally screwing up this company, and his father has come right out and said exactly that. The company is in a financial landslide, such that it hasn’t paid a dividend in 3+ year. NO PROFITS IN 3 YEARS. This is unheard of for a highly profitable company like MK. He is making huge changes that are shifting the company in a bad direction, and I’m not sure there is any way to stop this runaway train at this point.
But I think he is downright OK with that. This legacy has had to have been an albatross around his neck since he was a teenager.
Agree. I think he’s looking for an off ramp. If the trust fund wasn’t being gutted by daddy’s wifey and he didn’t “need” (want) the money selling the business would get him, I think he’d resign and go elsewhere.
Whatever’s going on, he’s 100% checked out. And I love it.
Speaking as a layperson here, so correct me if I’m wrong, Tracy. I wonder how much of the company “not turning a profit” and not paying dividends has to do with hinky accounting. Personal travel charged to corporate, Ryan giving himself a raise, putting other family on payroll, etc. We know it happens at the director, consultant, and even nsd level. I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t happen at the corporate level, too. I’d also be surprised if that’s not part of what drove the company to go back to a private, not public company decades ago. Reporting requirements are different.
Ryan’s father, the one with the greedy trophy wife and fake adopted daughter, spent his first years in charge jetsetting and playboying and not caring what was going on as long as the money rolled into his bank account. I forgot who it was, but one of his associates, or maybe a family member, finally forced him to sit down and be a CEO. The rot set in decades ago.
I’m rooting for Ryan, if he gets rid of the pyramid, even accidentally, good for him. I love that he’s making these stale frumps clutch their pearls.
I wish they were publicly traded… there’s a certian forensic accountant out there who I bet could find out!!
This is the part that gets me – carry on all you want about pants/skirts – there is a pending lawsuit where Richard states the company is not making money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I were in MK, this would be a huge red flag to me, especially if I supported my family with it
The cynic in me wonders if he encourages stuff like Pantsgate to keep the huns at each other’s throats, because then they’re not paying attention to the important stuff: cutbacks on perks, no new products, huge changes to the shopping and order fulfillment models, and of course the whole family suing itself and Ryan running it straight into a brick wall.
I came across a comment from October or so and the director was complaining about how there is no longer a dedicated customer service team for the directors – they still have a “special” phone number – but they get routed to the same CSR’s non directors use lol
Tracy,
I’m curious about your professional thoughts:
Congrats! You are now in charge of Mary Kay! What would be your business plan for Mary Kay? What do you see are Ryan’s mistakes and how would you fix them?
There were several comments that stood out to me, for various reasons:
– “You ladies are MONEY!” I think Kiersten misspelled “owe.”
– “If you want to work for UPS you WEAR the UPS suit.” That’s just it–you would be working “for” another company, not owning your own.
– “…feels a bit like it’s not our own business, right?” Rose is getting warmer. See row above.
– “Walmart, nurses, doctors etc. all have uniforms… they don’t question it.” Tammy is not getting warmer. See the 2 rows above.
– “Traditions are more valuable than sales and profit.” Well, Gale’s got her ‘druther.”
– “I used to ‘get in trouble’ w my recruiter for not having pantyhose on to do DELIVERIES.” Strange that a business owner would “get in trouble” with someone else.
– “When you go this direction you are asking for a whole new ‘Wild West’ of attire and make us look like any sales force out there that doesn’t respect image!”
SMH on this one. Remember that thread on the Discussion Board with a picture of a bunch of women in an auditorium doing some sort of exercise with hands raised and some sitting on the floor looking completely flummoxed? And all of the crazy outfits we are routinely treated to pictures of, running the gamut from merely ill-fitting, through suggestive, all the way to outright buffoonish? This is not the image a legitimate cosmetics company would be looking for.
With regard to the comment above asking who the MK “business owners” are dressing for, it must be each other. As long as they are fixated on this trivial issue, they will have less bandwidth for contemplating that (a) the people they’re trying to fit in with are their competitors, and (b) they are probably losing money, or at least making peanuts.
“A Man approached me and told me how REFRESHING is was to see a woman dressed Professionally…”
So, the purpose of Mary Kay is to cater to low quality men that think women exist to entertain and delight them? “Ooh, pick me! Pick me!” isn’t the flex she thinks it is.
So much for being a “women supporting women” business.
They go on and on about the jackets, but there are men’s jackets and vests too. (I love vests.)
If it were me, I’d wear a white long sleeve blouse, the white jeans, and the pink VEST, just to watch the frumpy pearl-clutchers’ heads explode.
I agree with others here who suggest that the whole “OMG…PANTS?!?!” thing is a distraction from the failing business structure.
Also, the embrace of this BIG change is to soften them up for the next big change: the move to affiliate model.