Kariba suit

[3] After PNP came to power in Jamaica in 1972, the Parliament passed a law recognising that the Kariba suit was appropriate for official functions and Manley, by now Prime Minister, wore a "fancy black one" when he met Queen Elizabeth II.

In his memoirs, The Politics of Change, Manley called the decision to wear a jacket and tie, in the tropical realties of the Caribbean, the "first act of psychological surrender" to "colonial trauma".

In 1981 the newly formed JLP government announced that the Kariba suit was no longer considered proper dress for parliamentarians.

Parliament then required that MPs, visitors and journalists dress "with propriety": interpreted as no Kariba suits and no guayabera shirts.

Ivy Ralph, the designer of the Kariba suit, was awarded the Order of Distinction in 1999 for outstanding contribution to the promotion of fashion.