World Leader Fashion Shows Edit
Ponchos in Peru at the APEC Summit

It sounds like a fashion shoot on crack: George Bush posing with Dmitri Medvedev? In Ponchos? In Peru?  That’s exactly what happened this week as APEC leaders met in Lima, Peru to discuss economic trade and investment issues for the Pacific Rim regions. 

It’s become tradition to take an annual photo of all leaders wearing the host country’s customary garb.  Ironically, it all started in 1993 in one of the only countries in the world without recognizable “traditional” attire: the United States.  Nevertheless, since Bomber jackets were all the rage in the Kurt-Cobain Seattle era, a small piece of history began. 

Since then, they have worn Batik shirts in Malaysia, Chamantos in Chile, and beautiful Hanboks in Korea.  And of course no photo was ever complete without (almost) all smiling, happy faces. 

I expect this to be come a larger event that gains more world-wide attention in the next few years as host countries vie to out-do one another with winning the finishing photo. Already, mainstream media is trying to tie the Peruvian’s choice of baby alpaca shearings to what is happening on the runways in New York.