Lose the suit, go for couture diplomacy

Daadi-mas and Gen Zs alike were impressed with Ursula von der Leyen turning up at the Republic Day jamboree in a Rajesh Pratap Singh Banarasi brocade bandhgala. With its deep purple-maroon base and gold zari floral motifs, it was the kind of garment that makes even the most hardened bureaucrat from Brussels look like she's wandered out of a Mughal miniature. It was less 'European Commission president' and more 'Empress of a neo-Baroque'. This is the future of diplomacy: leaders dressed not in drab suits like they do in Davos, or in Armani-flip-flops like the Tech Bros still do in the Valley, but in the full regalia of silk armoury. Imagine the G7 summit as a global costume ball.

Our leaders, too, should return Von der Leyen's gesture. Instead of wearing the same old black waistcoat-safed kurta or handloomy tunes, they should wear flamboyant 'traditional' couture of the country they are visiting. Lederhosen, complete with suspenders and alpine hats, when in Germany. A bowler hat when in Britain, and a beret in France. A Spanish visit should have our netas in Flamenco ruffles. In Japan, they could don samurai armour, ensuring that negotiations are conducted with the gravitas of a Kurosawa epic. In Scotland, a kilt, of course. Because nothing builds trust like the possibility of a gust of wind revealing more than fiscal transparency.