What is acceptable to wear outside the house?

I recently wrote about the Australian made track pants that I'm dying to get ahold of (see here ). I also wrote about the fact that typically it is not appropriate to wear said trackies outside of your living environment.

Then I stumbled upon an article in the New York Times from May 14, 2010: "The Pajama Game Closes in Shanghai ". See, in Shanghai it is not uncommon to see women walking around in pajamas. I can tell you they were subjects in many of my China photographs. Hello, they were wearing Pajamas in the streets! In actuality I was about 15 and thinking, "If they can wear pajamas outside, can I?" (Answer: no)

Sadly, I only have a few pictures on my Mac (I'm about 5 computers away from the one I used then) and this picture features NO ONE in pajamas. But you can totally see that people here would go for comfort, right?

According to the article, they are trying to put a ban on wearing pajamas. I guess the "just rolled out of bed" look isn't really the look Shanghai is going for anymore, especially after they pumped 58 BILLION dollars into an Expo (that I haven't heard of...) and are expecting 70 million people to rock up over the next year (are you going?)

I'm a bit disappointed. Shanghai is a unique city and even though they have abolished my favourite shopping place- Silk Alley, I'd still like to go back and see it like it is, Pajamas and all! But alas, the western world taking over again...  and the way it's looking, I better go soon.