The APEC summit gives world leaders a chance to play a little dress-up and trade-in their typical business suits for the traditional wear of the host country.

This year it’s in Singapore and we’ve got a description, but no photos yet, of what the leaders will wear for the group shot on Nov. 14.

Long-sleeved linen shirts with mandarin collars for the men, and a V-necked blouse with elaborate embroidery and lace for the women will be sported by President Barack Obama and the leaders of the 20 other nations attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.

This year’s outfit was created by local Singapore designer Wykidd Song, the Straits Times reported, and is inspired by the Peranakans,  a local term for the descendants of the Chinese who settled in the Malay Archipelago from the 17th century.

“The Peranakan culture is a rich blend of the Chinese and Malay cultures with some influence from the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Thai, Indian and Indonesian cultures as well, ” the Singapore Tourist Board says on its web site.

And there’s a choice of color –  blue, red and green.

Some of the world’s most powerful leaders don some of the world’s most distinctive outfits at the annual APEC group photo shoot.

At the 2008 meeting in Peru, they wore traditional ponchos, and other years have featured long silk tunics or leather jackets.

PHOTO CREDITS: Bush in poncho, REUTERS/Pilar Olivares; Bush, Putin, Hu in traditional Vietnamese outfits at 2006 APEC summit, REUTERS/Reinhard Krause.

KAILUA, HI - Barack Obama may be the first U.S. president who can successfully pull off the shaka, a Hawaiian greeting Hawaiians say has various meanings, from “hang loose” and “cool” to “thanks.”
    
The hand gesture, also a common greeting in surfer culture, consists of curling the three middle fingers and extending the thumb and little finger.
    
The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards, flipped the shaka to a crowd of about 30 people as he left a gym on a Marine Corps base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is vacationing.
    
Obama, born and largely raised on Oahu, then walked over to greet the crowd, which had waited through a brief cloudburst to see him. Righting his baseball cap as he walked, he shook hands before posing with four babies.

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In the wake her $150,000 wardrobe flap, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has complained that male politicians largely escape the scrutiny that she undergoes from the fashion police.

Not so fast. The Grooming Lounge, a Georgetown hair salon that coiffs many of Washington’s most powerful players, has weighed in with beauty tips for the men in the race.

Here’s what they have to say.

Republican John McCain: Slather on some “self tanning product” to exude a healthy glow, and tweeze the eyebrows. “Our research shows that the last five elections have been won by the candidate with more well-trimmed eyebrows,” the Grooming Lounge says.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama: Use a cream to reduce the bags under the eyes, and wear shorts, not sweatpants, while playing basketball. “Sweats and hoops are on separate sides of the aisle,” they write.

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden: whiten the teeth and get a haircut. “The presence of excessive fly-aways make him look less put together and too much off-the-cuff,” the salon says.

Todd Palin, “First Dude” of Alaska: Switch to a less-shiny hair gel and shave the goatee to ease concerns about wife Sarah’s maturity. “Such pre-meditated facial hair makes him look a tad collegiate, more youthful than needed and adversely affects Governor Palin’s attempts to seem more experienced,” they write.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.