--- title: Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Strict Women's Dress Code description: Kansas state Sen. Mitch Holmes apologized Tuesday and retracted a dress code that placed strict limits on women, but not men. canonical: https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-26T16:16:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:27:00.345Z article:section: Politics og:title: Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Creating Strict Women's Dress Code og:description: He faced criticism from both sides of the aisle og:url: https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6eb7fcc1ea1cbc/69887a96428a9edc0acd11a2/sen-mitch-holmes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Fall Elections og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Creating Strict Women's Dress Code twitter:description: He faced criticism from both sides of the aisle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6eb7fcc1ea1cbc/69887a96428a9edc0acd11a2/sen-mitch-holmes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Creating Strict Women's Dress Code by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 26, 2016 4:16 PM UTC  Sen. Mitch Holmes, R-St. John, discusses a bill at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka on Feb. 26, 2015. Sen. Mitch Holmes, R-St. John, discusses a bill at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka on Feb. 26, 2015.Chris Neal—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 26, 2016 4:16 PM UTC Kansas state Sen. Mitch Holmes [apologized Tuesday](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/kansas-lawmaker-retracts-panels-dress-code-apologizes-36523584) and retracted a [dress code](http://time.com/4190873/kansas-senate-dresscode/) that placed strict limits on women testifying before his committee. Holmes, the Republican chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, issued a statement saying it was not within his right to provide specific instructions on how women should dress without giving similar guidelines for men, according to the Associated Press. The Kansas Legislature typically allows its committee leaders to set their own rules, the AP reports, but members of both parties were quick to criticize the guidelines, which said “low-cut necklines and mini-skirts” are inappropriate for women. “My failure to clearly specify that all conferees, regardless of gender, should strive to present themselves professionally is unacceptable,” Holmes said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/"},"headline":"Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Creating Strict Women's Dress Code","datePublished":"2016-01-26T16:16:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:27:00.345Z","description":"He faced criticism from both sides of the aisle","url":"https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/","keywords":["Kansas","gender","legal"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6eb7fcc1ea1cbc/69887a96428a9edc0acd11a2/sen-mitch-holmes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6eb7fcc1ea1cbc/69887a96428a9edc0acd11a2/sen-mitch-holmes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Fall Elections","caption":"Fall Elections","creditText":"Chris Neal—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/kansas/","name":"Kansas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4194014/kansas-womens-dress-code-sen-mitch-holmes/","name":"Kansas Lawmaker Apologizes for Creating Strict Women's Dress Code"}}]}] ```