Don't hassle Mayor Hoff

Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt’s sartorial choices have been making headlines — ok, not really, but they have been worthy of note — for years, and they just keep making for high blog fodder.

It started with a gaffe in his 2009 mayoral campaign, when he said in a debate: “There is not a good place in Vancouver to buy a nice suit. I go across the river.”

It continues today, with a picture Leavitt posted to his Facebook wall, to chronicle his trip with buddy Albert Angelo III to Europe.

Leavitt at the Budapest suspension bridge over the River Danube. Sweater tied around neck. Pants rolled many times.

The backlash was immediate, with one friend writing: “What’s the sweater thing going on?”

“Way to embrace European fashion circa David Hasselhoff of 1986,” another wrote.

Councilor Bart Hansen got in on the game after that, adding: “Don’t hassle Mayor Hoff.”

Comparisons to Stuart Smalley and Ricky Martin followed.

Mayor Hoff — ahem, Leavitt — then waded into the fray in his own defense: “Ha! You guys are too much! To be sure the record is clear…that’s not a sweater, but a golf pullover. And….besides, EVERYBODY around here IS wearing SWEATERS over their shoulders. So….there!”

We add here, you’re in EASTERN EUROPE. This is not a fashionable place last we checked. Are you going to embrace the German tradition of black socks and Birkenstocks next? Two fashion wrongs don’t make a right.