It all began 12 years ago, when Indonesia’s then-president Suharto “invited” his guests at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to wear batik shirts. Since then it has been customary for the leaders from member and observer countries to don matching traditional attire for the group picture.At this year’s meeting in Hanoi, the 21 emerged for the photo shoot adorned in flowing silk ao dai in a rainbow of colors. Baby blue was by far the most popular hue, selected by conservative heavyweights like US President Bush, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Our prime minister shone brightly in yellow, as did the leader of the host nation, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.In the old days both men and women wore ao dai, but now they are nearly exclusively the domain of women and are tailored to accentuate the natural curves of the female body. As a whole, the group looked pretty hot. Not hot as in “sexy” hot but hot as in of course you’re going to sweat your ass off when you’re wearing a suit underneath. Which suggests that they weren’t 100% comfortable with the outfits.It’s been said by more cynical observers that the point of such “traditions” is simply to make the leaders of some of the world’s most powerful and important countries look silly—and so you can see how they handle the situation. It’s a bit like when you take your foreign friends out for seafood and get them to drink from the bowl of tea with the limes in it before using the liquid to clean your hands.But maybe the late president Suharto was onto something. Maybe a good way to achieve not just solidarity but consensus is to dress everyone in matching outfits and make sure they are as uncomfortable and self-conscious as possible. Bodyguards, too; as in strip poker, you’re not allowed to watch unless you play.Looking back, this year’s APEC Summit may go down in history as one of the most important meetings to be held in Asia in recent history. Perhaps seeing each other in sexy ao dai will cause them to change their opinions of one another and the world in general. Because if you can get macho guys like George W. and Vladimir to wear what is basically a dress, in public, there’s hope for us all.