Not only are neckties apparently a symbol of the West’s vulgar culture, but they contribute to Bangladesh’s energy shortage in the summer. In 2009, the Bangladeshi government told government employees to stop wearing neckties, suits, and jackets to work in the summer and simultaneously told government offices not to set the air conditioners below 75 degrees. High energy demands in the summer caused widespread blackouts that year.
While this is done for practical purposes, Banglasheshi columnist Maswood Alam Khan said the ban was also a boost to national pride because it eliminated a fashion that carried over from British colonialism.
Wearing suits and stuffing our necks with a tie, in spite of ourselves, is a sartorial fashion we have borrowed from the British who were our colonial rulers. Our ancestors enjoyed punishing themselves by mimicking the British style and fashion, which was seen as synonymous with being chic and modern. They wanted in vain to be 'brown sahibs'! So, as a legacy our office executives-the fashion victims-now find it prestigious to chill their car and office chamber to [64 degrees F.] so that they and their guests can wear pinstripe suits and silk ties wrapped over the designer shirts when the weather outside is extremely hot and humid and when the general people are sweating and panting due to power outage.
