Bermuda?s famous shorts are on the way out according to a lengthy article by the Los Angeles Times.

Writer Carol J. Williams visited recently but found Bermudian businessmen were shunning the display of knobbly knees in the work place ? with some getting more conservative and others getting even more casual.

The entertaining piece mentions Sports Minister Dale Butler in traditional garb at the Athens Olympics last year, something which reportedly was a hit with the ladies.

But Mr. Butler said, as he was leaving a reception there, he encountered a Saudi prince in the elevator who eyed him with suspicion and offered to provide the fabric needed to complete his clothing.

?Later I received an invitation from him to an event they were hosting,? he said. ?He?d written on it, ?Long pants required?.?

The piece claims shorts were worn by a diminishing circle of elderly white gentlemen and workers in the hospitality industry, who put them on solely for the paycheck.

Laurence Trimingham, of the recently closed Trimingham?s chain, said: ?I would say it has been changing more than diminishing, going from dress attire to a more casual look.

?Originally, the shorts came to us from the British military summer uniform. As that influence in the colonies has gone away, so have the shorts.?

Former Premier Sir John Swan defended the shifting trend: ?I have always felt that I wanted to be a traditional, classically dressed Bermudian, as a public figure,? he said, arguing that a suit and tie project a more serious and accomplished image than do shorts and knee socks.

?In the context of Bermuda, they are seen as business attire, but in the context of the international community, they are not,? he said. Sir John noted other former colonies abandoned the shorts when they became independent.

?In Barbados, for example, they don?t like you wearing shorts to work. They see it as a throwback to the colonial days.?

Bermuda shops still sell about 20,000 pairs of the shorts each year, said David Hamshere, president of the English Sports Shop.

Mr. Hamshere told the LA Times Bermuda shorts haven?t so much gone out of style as they have evolved into newly popular casual attire.

?There?s a great deal less formality in Bermuda now than there was before the business community changed from tourism to reinsurance. The dress-down Friday has almost become a daily matter.?

With Trimingham and its subsidiary Smith?s out of the picture, the English Sports Shop has inherited the convention business, which accounts for special orders of up to 250 matching Bermuda short suits, as well as most of the school and hotel uniform contracts.

Mr. Hamshere, who was dressed in tailored shorts, knee socks, shirt, tie and navy blazer, during the interview laments the ?younger element? often breaks tradition by omitting the hosiery, tie and jacket.

?There?s something comforting when one is dressed for the occasion,? Mr. Hamshere said. ?Shakespeare got it right: ?Clothes maketh the man?.?

But he admitted he wouldn?t wear Bermuda shorts for a business meeting in New York or London. ?People would look and laugh.?

Scott Simmons, spokesman for the ruling Progressive Labor Party, said Bermuda shorts denote the old, traditional Bermuda ? even though many of his colleagues including Education Minister Terry Lister and Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton favour shorts in summer.

?They evoke the image of a gentlemen?s club, a brandy-and-cigar-room society inclusive of the few and exclusive of the rest,? said Mr. Simmons, adding shorts gave the wearers ?a tendency to appear too relaxed?.

?When you?re dealing every day with corporate America, you want Bermuda to appear a serious destination,? he said.

Desmond Richardson, a 37-year-old building contractor who says he hasn?t worn the shorts since elementary school, said: ?They?re identified with a certain lifestyle, mostly older men in the business community.

?People who want to wear shorts now wear cargo shorts.?

He noting the shorts were introduced here as the British military occupiers? idea of ?respectable attire.?

?It was like they were saying to us, ?You must look smart all the time. Now people wear whatever they feel most comfortable in.?

Thomas Jones, 56, who has spent 30 years in the tourism industry, mostly in luxury hotels where doormen, waiters and concierges are dressed in each establishment?s own version of the national costume.

?I?ve always been into the colours,? said Mr. Jones, who can choose his own outfits now that he?s a private taxi dispatcher. He turned out a pink-stockinged foot in matching loafer for inspection, drawing a hand to his chest to show that his shirt and tie matched them. ?But we?re a disappearing generation,? Mr. Jones said. ?The young crowd, they wear the baggies what we used to call knickerbockers. It looks just awful.?