Filipino designer Paul Cabral shows the ‘barong’ shirts he has designed for world leaders at this week’s APEC summit in Manila. (File photo)

Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members will wear traditional clothes of the Philippines on Wednesday's APEC summit in Manila, according to a report by The Guardian.

According to a news report by The Guardian, Paul Cabral, the renowned Filipino designer, labored for four months creating a traditional “barong” shirt for each of the 21 APEC leaders, embroidered with individual symbols of their country.

The “barong tagalog” holds a special place in a Filipino man’s closet, reserved for special events like weddings. It also serves as his burial shroud.

The cloth is made from the hard, spiked leaves from the pineapple’s crown, which are pounded and dried.

The shirt of China’s President Xi Jinping features tall bamboo with cascading leaves while Malaysia’s Najib Razak boasts warrior shields from Sarawak.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s tall frame will be draped with bold patterns from American renaissance architecture and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will wear a barong with a cherry blossom design, Cabral said.

The APEC Summit takes place from Nov. 18 to 19.

Former US president George W Bush and Russian leader Vladimir Putin look less than comfortable in the Vietnamese ‘ao dai’ silk tunic at the Apec meeting in Hanoi in 2006.(File photo)