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Seersucker Thursdays

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Seersucker day becomes sign of sisterhood
Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the Senate, sisterhood is seersucker.

Like many other Senate traditions, Seersucker Thursday was initially male-dominated.

But on Thursday, more than half the 14 women senators donned mostly identical natty blue-and-white crinkly striped suits -- courtesy of California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who outfitted her women colleagues with $150 suits on sale at Brooks Brothers two summers ago. Only about 15 of the 86 men donned their stripes.

"I would watch the men preening in the Senate in their seersucker suits, and I figured we should give them a little bit of a horse race," said Feinstein. "It's a fun thing."

Feinstein acknowledged that the rest of the year she seldom takes her seersucker skirt and jacket out of her closet. "It's not very California," she said.

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, of Mississippi, dreamed up the ritual about seven years ago as a fun tribute to traditional southern fashion.

He wanted "to show folks that the Senate isn't just a bunch of dour folks wearing dark suits and in the case of the men - red or blue ties," his spokeswoman said. This year, Lott wore a pink tie with his seersucker -- and matching pink socks.

Feinstein's California colleague Barbara Boxer, not one usually given to half-hearted gestures, opted to wear the seersucker blazer over dark slacks. Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski, not known as among the more fashion-conscious senators, passed on the seersucker altogether, saying the jacket was way too big on her after she lost weight during an illness last summer.

Coincidentally, the Senate was debating legislation on Iran and the word "seersucker" has its roots in a Persian expression, shroshakarshir, literally "milk and sugar" that referred to what is now called candy stripes.
 

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