Scarf people invade New York!

It was comical enough last week when I saw people in Italy -- men as well as women -- wearing scarves in torrid weather.  OK, you know how ridiculous I think the Italian obsession with a covered neck (no matter the rest of the upper body be nude).  Now they're doing it here too!  See this peculiar slide show by the Times's Bill Cunningham, who narrates the piece with an Eastern Massachusetts accent you could cut a knife with.  (I feel right at hom.)

I suspect a great many of the people Cunningham photographed were actually Italians here on a shopping spree.  Or Japanese tourists who are aping Italian styles.  Or would-be Eurotrash from the Outer Boroughs?  My God, what is this world coming to!

Furthermore:

A Brazilian blogger living in Denmark makes the same observations.  With pix. 

Fashion victims? Or victims of aggressive mothering?