Leaders from the Asia-Pacific as well as the US and Russia posed for the cameras late yesterday in shimmering shirts made from hand-woven fabric "meticulously designed" by the office of the Sultan of Brunei, the host of this year's East Asia Summit.
Each shirt had a unique pattern enhanced by a traditional flower motif woven into the cloth, the organisers said in a statement today.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- wore a stylish olive shirt as he greeted his guests for a gala dinner in the oil-rich state.
It comes just days after a guitar-strumming Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono led a stylish parade of leaders in Balinese-designed shirts at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Indonesia.
Also Read
The APEC fashion show -- which had last been staged in Singapore in 2009 -- has seen its share of fashion disasters, sometimes leaving leaders looking grim-faced at group photos.
President Bill Clinton started the tradition in 1993, handing out leather bomber jackets in Seattle.
The next year, then-US president George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin were required to don flowing silk ao dai tunics in Hanoi.
Peru topped that with brown ponchos which unkind fashionistas likened to potato sacks.