Since being elected to office last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sharp dressing and flamboyant wardrobe have consistently made headlines both in India and abroad. Yesterday, his government took his sartorial diplomacy a step further when over 40 African heads of state donned traditional Indian attire at a dinner held on the sidelines of the 3rd India-Africa Summit in New Delhi.
The African leaders were dressed in raw silk kurtas, “Modi jackets” and safas (Indian headgear), a look frequently sported by Modi. The only exceptions to the dress code were the presidents of Zimbabwe and South Africa, Robert Mugabe and Jacob Zuma. The summit is being held between Oct. 26 and 29, to boost economic ties between India and African countries.
Connecting with Indian fashion ahead of dinner hosted by @PMOIndia @narendramodi cc @IndiainKenya @RashtrapatiBhvn pic.twitter.com/4GtB5Wwlsr
— President of Kenya (@PresidentKE) October 28, 2015
A sleeveless waist coast, the “Modi jacket” is a more colourful variant of the iconic “Nehru jacket” worn by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. For the India-Africa summit, the Indian government had specially commissioned the Indian fashion label Biba to design bespoke jackets and kurtas in various colours for each leader. Last year, the Indian PM had also gifted a “Modi jacket” to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to India.
Stitching together the fabric of a new partnership with Africa. PM hosts a special dinner for #IAFS leaders pic.twitter.com/AzjmwVuLBS
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) October 28, 2015
In interviews, Modi has described his flair for “mixing and matching colours” as a gift from god. His attention to clothes is said to extend to designer glasses, pens and watches. Most of his clothes are made by his long-time Ahmedabad-based tailor Jade Blue, who even sells a trademarked "Modi kurta", the short-sleeved cotton tunic associated with the PM.
The most famous instance Modi’s sartorial flamboyance is the pinstripe bandhgala (an Indian suit) worn by him during US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in January. Its navy-blue fabric had his full name monogrammed in tiny letters into the golden pinstripe. Following public debates about the value of the suit, which allegedly cost around 1 million rupees or $15300, it was finally sold at a charity auction for approximately 43.1 million rupees or $693,000.
During the same visit by Obama in January, Modi came under the Indian media’s scanner for changing his clothes thrice in a single day, even overtaking the American First Lady Michelle Obama. This record was surpassed during Modi’s recent visit to the US in September, when he donned four different outfits in a day, between visits to Tesla Motors, meetings with CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, a Facebook town hall with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and a reception by the Indian community.
He has also been in the news for adopting the colourful headgear of different Indian states during his visits.