S. Asia struts on UN catwalk

"You have to remember, we have a very long history of shabby-looking leaders, so almost anything would be acceptable," laughs Ms. Dayal, who owns Anupamaa Fashions in New Delhi. "But with Manmohan Singh, we have all seen his work, what he's done for the country on economic reforms, so we forgive him his shabbiness."

In a way, that shabbiness is a form of reassurance. Many Indians consider their politicians to be impossibly corrupt, so many politicians overcompensate with the "everyman" look. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, for instance, was a devotee of the dhoti, a simple cotton garment that was somewhere between a skirt and a loincloth, favored by Hindu farmers and shopkeepers of the Indian north.

By contrast, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is also the nation's top Army general, follows in the Jinnah school of Western business clothes - at least when he goes on foreign trips.

Again, these sartorial decisions matter. First, by wearing Western suits abroad, Musharraf is signaling to the West that he is a moderate Muslim, a ready Western ally in the fight against extremism.

Second, by wearing uniforms at home, Musharraf indicates that he has no intention of giving up military power in order to hold onto his civilian position.

This week, Musharraf gave a strong indication to The New York Times that he will break a campaign promise to step down from his military position. Quitting now, he argued, might undermine the country's all-important fight against Al Qaeda and other Islamic militants.

The greatest clotheshorse of them all, of course, is the man with the least power but the most flair: Hamid Karzai.

As interim president of an interim government, with a tiny army of his own and personal guards provided by a US-based security firm, President Karzai cuts a more dashing figure abroad than he does at home.

Wearing a piece of clothing from each of the major ethnic groups, Mr. Karzai is a one-man demographic fashion show.

The gray karakul cap, made from the skin of a newborn karakul lamb, reflects the traditions of the ethnic Tajik north. The blue-green cloak, called a chopan, comes from the Uzbek minority of Mazar-e Sharif. The band-collared shirt shows respect to Shiites, who don't wear ties. And the clipped beard is a nod to his own Pashtun majority, who would never trust a man without a beard. But the beard isn't too long - that would worry the rest of the country.

"Hamid Karzai is the best dressed man in the world today," says Dayal, echoing a similar statement by New York fashion designer Tom Ford a few years back. "He has a natural sense of style, he knows how to connect with the ethnic groups and he fuses that together very well."

"The problem is that we [Indians] never have a leader who is under 70 years old," laughs Dayal. "If only for once we had a young charismatic leader, we'll all want to dress him up."

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