Heads Of Government

‘TONY Blair has had a lot to wrestle with over the past few months and we’re not just talking about his regular Tuesday morning grapple with John ‘Two Bellies’ Prescott.

Hands up who looks a twat!

Iraq, the war against terror, foundation hospitals, the Sudan, house price inflation, what part of his back Gordon Brown is going to stick the knife in…

But the quandary the Prime Minister faces this morning is a real tricky one – to bandana or not to bandana.

Does Mr Blair follow the example of his friend and host, Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, and wrap a handkerchief round his head or does he let his bouffant locks bounce free?

It’s a hard one all right and, if Blair is looking to the newspapers for guidance, he is out of luck.

The Independent reports that, far from looking a complete twat, Berlusconi is on the cutting edge of fashion.

Harvey Nichols spokesman explains: ‘More and more men are wearing them in the cooler bars in London. In terms of a trend, Berlusconi was spot on.’

It has been suggested that what to the Indy is a fashion coup by the Italian PM was in fact merely designed to conceal the scars of a recent hair transplant operation.

But he gets no marks from the Telegraph for style.

‘There are,’ says the paper’s Clare Coulson, ‘few things more tragic, in fashion terms at least, than a middle-aged man trying too hard to be cool.

‘As fashion crimes go, the bandana is up there with neon-trimmed shell suits and handlebar moustaches.’

And the Italian congoscenti agree. Daniela Monti, a fashion writer for Corriere della Sera, says: ‘If there is one thing you can be almost sure you won’t see on an Italian beach right now, it’s people wearing bandanas.

‘They are fuori moda – out of fashion. In other words, old hat.’

That was of course until Big Brother’s Stuart came along…’

Posted: 18th, August 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink