World leaders' dress proves online sensation

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Shanghai Daily, November 14, 2014
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Chinese traders are offering the chance to get that "world leader look" by selling copies of the garb worn by Xi Jinping, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at this week's APEC summit in Beijing.

While the silky high-collared tunic (pictured right) was based on the traditional Chinese dress once, social media commentators outside the country joked that it resembled the uniforms worn in the sci-fi TV show "Star Trek."

Only days after the leaders donned the national dress for a "family photo" — a tradition of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering — China's entrepreneurs and its huge Internet marketplace were already selling replicas online.

"They are very popular, but the customer has to wait 20 days because we need to make them," one retailer selling the tunics for 268 yuan (US$44) said.

One shop took 30 orders in just half a day, reported The Beijing News yesterday, also noting that the price had gone up 50 percent in 24 hours.

"This is definitely going to be a popular item as Big Xi wore it," one retailer told the newspaper, using a commonly used nickname for the Chinese leader.

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