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`Cool biz' fashion hopes for warm reception locally

"Shirt prices range from NT$500 to NT$1,000."

the Bureau of Energy, in a press release

Like so many other Japanese trends, "cool biz" attire has spread to Taiwan, with the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy spearheading a drive to make it popular.

So what is "cool biz" and what in the heck does the Bureau of Energy have to do with fashion?

A cross between smart casual and formal (minus the tie and sleeves), cool biz is the new business uniform in the age of global warming.

To further get across just what cool biz is, the bureau hosted a cool biz fashion show at the Red Playhouse (紅樓劇場) in the heart of the Ximending (西門町) shopping district last Monday -- World Environment Day.

With soaring energy prices and global warming on everybody's minds, the bureau is taking its cues from Japan, whose government slashed carbon dioxide emissions by 460,000 tonnes last year by getting people to dress more casually at work.

Fewer ties and jackets for men in the summer, not to mention less pantyhose for women, mean less air-conditioning for offices nationwide, which in turn means less air pollution for the country.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is at the top of the bureau's things-to-do list.

Hence, Taiwan's own cool biz fashion campaign.

But don't believe what the media says about cool biz fashion being pricey, the bureau warned in a press release last Tuesday.

"Shirt prices range from NT$500 to NT$1,000," the bureau said in the statement.

Monday's fashion show went off without a hitch, with models parading along the catwalk in tasteful, inexpensive attire designed to help office workers beat the heat.

How successful Taiwan's cool biz drive is, however, will probably depend on Japan, where cool biz fashion has met with mixed reviews.

A recent Tokyo fashion show saw three potential candidates for prime minister take the stage in their cool biz outfits, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is known to appear in parliament in a Hawaiian-style shirt, wire agencies reported on June 1.

Younger office workers are usually in favor of cool biz fashion, "but older businessmen are reluctant to ditch the tie," Agence French-Presse reported on June 1.

"I've almost gotten ... used to seeing top-ranking Cabinet ministers show up on television looking as if they'd been yanked out of a golf game for an emergency press conference," one blogger in Japan wrote.

Another Japanese blogger complained of some officials taking cool biz too far.

"I didn't need to see that the undergarment [Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Tsutomu Takebe] uses to rein in those man-boobs ... is a narrow-strapped tank top. I really didn't," the blogger wrote.
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