How Modi's new suit came to cloak Obama's India visit
One single image is threatening to overshadow the breakthrough civil nuclear agreement, agreements of climate change and defence and other important events in what is the first visit by a US president for the Indian Republic Day.
The image is of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wearing a bandhgala suit during his walk around with the President of the USA on a sunny afternoon at the Hyderabad House gardens on the first day of the US President's unprecedented visit - a zoom later revealed that the "pin stripes" suit actually have the PM's name Narendra Damodardas Modi woven into the fabric over and over again.
It doesn't help that the suit, made by the PM's regular preferred fashion stop Ahmedabad-based Jade Blue - though Saville Row claims that only it offers the style, making Jade Blue's appropriation an unethical fashion rip off - has a precedence: Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was seen wearing it before his ouster.
The international media has picked up the image - and gone to town with it. '"Don't you know who I am?" screamed Prime Minister Modi's suit"', said The Washington Post. "Suit gaffe has Modi's name all over it," said The Times. "Narendra Modi's style tip for world leaders: wear a suit with your name written on it," said The Guardian.
On social media platform, the critique has been less formal and more biting. "Megalomaniac", "egotist" and "narcissist" are some of the terms being used to describe the Indian PM's sartorial choice.
The Wall Street Journal, doing a fashion round up, predicts "the Obama visit’s wardrobe will probably be best-remembered for those stripes on PM Modi’s second outfit", the monogrammed suit.
Supporters of the Indian prime minister are voicing concern that the suit controversy is needlessly diverting from the Obama visit, seen as a major diplomatic victory in less than a year of his ascent to office.
But terming the faux pas as a "frivolous controversy" may not be enough to take the sting out of it. "Clothes maketh the man" goes a popular idiom, and history is littered with examples of how fashion images have shown themselves to be powerful politically and socially.
Imelda Marcos' huge collection of shoes - she left 1,220 pairs behind when she and her dictator husband were driven out of Philippines in 1986 revolt - became a symbol of the misrule.
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of the "let them eat cake" infamy (though historians say she never actually uttered those words) of the French Revolution is remembered for her elaborate updos.
ISIS members' collection of expensive watches regularly make the news as a symbol of the crass vulgarity and worship of labels that the religious terrorist organisation adheres to.
It's not just about infamy and misrule. From "the little black dress" that is said to have emerged on catwalks owing to World War II shortage of cloth and revolutionised women's fashion, to Coco Chanel's use of tweed in her collections - seen as "shocking" in those times for men's fabric to be used for women's clothing - fashion is full of a jumble of the social, political and the sartorial that has left a mark on the world.
Nobody perhaps understands the use of fashion as political statement as the Indians - Mahatma Gandhi famously used the khadi and the loincloth to make it a symbol of revolution and self-rule.
And in 2013, a new study published in the journal Psychological Science, Vishal Singh of New York University’s Stern School of Business and his colleagues applied research on the psychological traits of liberals and conservatives to their consumer choices, and inferred that there is a marked left-right difference in how they buy consumer goods.
"The study hypothesis was simple: In counties characterised by strong Republican voting or religiosity, generics and new products would fare considerably worse at the checkout counter than established brands. Just picture a liberal and a conservative at the laundry detergent aisle. The basic idea is that the conservative more often reaches for the pricier but more established Tide (a Procter & Gamble product), rather than the cheaper in-store generic variant (more often favoured, presumably, by the liberal)" wrote alternet.org.
“These tendencies are consistent with traits typically associated with conservatism, such as aversion to risk, scepticism about new experiences, and a general preference for tradition, convention, and the status quo,” Singh and colleagues wrote.
Michelle Obama's mix and match style where she mixes high street and couture with aplomb has been seen by many as a nod to liberal values.
It is therefore neither unusual nor unprecedented that the choice of clothing by a world leader not just be subject of scrutiny, but become the leading news - and Narendra Modi seems to have walked right into the trap.
In a piece titled, "Here's what Narendra Modi's suit says about his politics" the The Washington Post, noting his glasses "said to be Bvlgari" and Movado watch, says they are "two brands at odds with his traditional Indian look but in keeping with his pro-business ideology".
The piece also says: "Orange has been a long-time favorite, as it is one of the main colours of Hinduism. One colour has been noticeably absent from his wardrobe. Last year, the Boston Review of Books ran an article which highlighted the lack of dark green, a colour commonly associated with Islam".
Clothes always have contained an unfolding story and the prime minister's sartorial choices will continue to attract scrutiny. For better, or in this case, for worse.