A London financial commentator has hit out below the belt at Bermuda.

Pink Bermuda shorts are the target for Financial Times' blog writer Helen Thomas, who this week wrote: "There can be nothing more disconcerting than the sight of a man in knee-length light pink shorts, knee-high socks, a striped shirt and tie and a jacket flung casually over his shoulder. There is, in fact, no excuse for it."

To drive home the point she included a colour picture of three businessmen wearing Bermuda shorts walking along Front Street and warned readers the picture would be appearing in the FT analysis page that week.

She followed up by claiming Bermuda was a "former British colony" and concluded that hedge fund managers "no matter what monstrous outfit they choose to wear" are in for a sticky time as a result of predictions of greater hurricane activity this year.

Perhaps the comments are a sign of London envy at the Island's chunky share of the insurance and reinsurance marketplace.

Bermuda resident and Royal Gazette columnist Roger Crombie weighed in with a witty reprise that the Bermuda shorts brigade are facing a challenge from newcomers wearing "mandatory open-necked checked shirts that have replaced the previously mandatory buttoned-up golf shirts".