Tesco has been criticised by parenting groups for selling a skirt that is less than a foot long as part of a nine-year-old girls school uniform range.
The miniskirt is just 29.5 cm long – nearly 4 inches shorter than skirts sold at either Asda or Sainsburys as part of their school uniform ranges – and parts of it are hitched up and stitched in place to keep the hemline high, hence the name Hitch and Stitch.
Parenting groups have hit out at the skirt, saying it “overly sexualises” young girls and is inappropriate as schoolwear .
Siobhan Freegard of parenting website Netmums said the £8 skirt “looks like it should be sold in a sex shop.”
“If Tesco does not remove this from their shelves they are saying that they think it is okay for children of nine or 10 to be seen in this way,” she said.
“It is particularly bad that this is part of a uniform range. Even the name of the skirt is suggestive.”
Child protection expert Shy Keenan added that skirts could “invite very unwelcome attention”.
But a Tesco spokesperson defended the sale of the product, insisting that it is ultimately down to parents “to decide what is appropriate for their child”.
