The dress code for participants in the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’22) in Bangkok has gone viral on social media, especially among the international physicist community, after details appeared on the organisers’website about what attendees can and cannot wear during the conference.

The conference will be held June 12th through 17th at the IMPACT exhibition and convention centre.

The dress code says women may not wear trousers and men may not wear patterned shirts. Men’s shoes must be black leather, neutral colour clothing must be pressed and long hair must be tied and no tattoos may be visible.

Professor David K. Smith responded to the dress code by saying “We are creative academics. We go to conferences to share ideas. As long as people aren’t wearing bikinis or speedos and don’t have swastika tattoos on the side of their face, I really couldn’t care less what they look like.”

This dress code – from a Physics conference – is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen:
No trousers for women!!
No patterned shirts (that's me gone!)
Dark leather shoes (nope)
Neutral colours (nope)
Clothes pressed (nope, I'm a single dad)
No tattoos/piercings
Long hair tied. pic.twitter.com/R6j6F9GbvS

— David K Smith (@professor_dave) April 29, 2022

Two more of his tweets read “Apparently, the (partial) excuse for this is that royalty will be present at the opening ceremony, but really, we need this??”

“Lots of people asking if it is for real. Yes, it’s the dress code for the opening session attended by a member of Thai Royal Family. You can, of course, opt out but you would miss the first two plenary lectures of the conference (and your fees have paid for it).”

After the social media uproar, the event organisers explained that the dress code is not yet finalised and they are in the process of discussing it with the officials concerned. They also said that the dress code will apply on the opening day only.

We fully understand the concerns that were raised, which are totally valid. We ourselves have similar concerns even before they were raised. Please note that those requirements were from an early communication between us and the responsible officials, and are not yet finalized.

— IPAC22 (@IPAC22official) April 30, 2022

The information in question has now been removed from the website, to avoid further confusion, said the organisers, who later said that they anticipate that the dress code for the opening ceremony will conform to international standards for events of this kind.

IPAC is the main international event for the world accelerator community and industry. Participants will be presented with cutting-edge accelerator research and developments and gain the latest insights into accelerator facilities across the world.

Over 1,000 delegates and 70 industry exhibits are expected to be at this event.