Any day now the vice president will pull out a harmonica and strip off his dress shirt to reveal the tie-dye beneath, ready to roam and ramble across this nation of subdivisions.
The gloomy conditions were at least illuminated by the respective strips with Harlequins' light blue, magenta, chocolate and French grey quartered shirt for once outshone by Stade's pink and blue tie-dye effort.
In the collection's most unusual element, many of the tie-dye gowns were embellished with large, futuristic-looking collars and other attached pieces made of what the sisters call 3-D double-faced foam.