Ex-President Bush’s supporters are sniping at Barack Obama’s team, on everything from new Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement that waterboarding is torture to the president’s casual clothing choices. Holder has been criticised by the former Attorney General who said that the comment would affect the ‘morale and the dedication’ of intelligence officials, while a former chief of staff got into the clothing debate by saying that the new ruling that weekends should be downgraded to ‘business casual’ clothing is wrong. He also criticised President Obama for being photographed in his shirt in the White House (there has been some whinging about Mrs Obama not having her arms covered in the evenings too) because, according to the ex chief of staff, ‘There should be a dress code of respect’ rather than a ‘casual, laissez faire, short sleeves, no shirt and tie, no jacket, kind of locker-room experience’. Wow – who knew that a short-sleeved shirt could cause such controversy?

Sometimes casual clothing is purely good news  – when the Nikkei average rose 0.95 this week, it was largely because of good February sales at the Uniqlo casual clothing chain. Apparently, when the Japanese get depressed about the economy they go out and buy sweatshirts and jog pants … fascinating.

And Hoodie-Hoo day is celebrated in Pennsylvania on 20 February. Although it doesn’t have anything to do with hoodies, most people who take part were wearing one this year, along with a thick winter coat, hat and gloves.  It’s the twelfth year of Hoodie Hoo, which was invented by Tom and Ruth Roy – Tom was a disc jockey who ‘created’ the event as part of a list of holidays that he read out on air. Basically, at noon, people go outside and yell “Hoodie-Hoo” to chase winter away and get ready for spring. They also ring school bells apparently. Hmmm …

Casual Clothing gets Global Attention is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog