way out east : serpentine serpentine!

Its tough to find a decent tailor in the Tuva heartland. Picture that caught my attention, given the incongruity of their appearance within the context of Washington fashions and the overall chic of Western garb. Here Medvedev, Svetlana and Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan had his spouse Rita meeting in August. They all look like part of the cast in the Coen brothers, A Serious Man film set in 1967. These people don’t seem quite comfortable in Western style suits and the cut shows a lack of finish in the tailoring and a disregard for certain stylistic and aesthetic advances since that time. It was suggested that this look was “staged” for Western consumption, but I think it reflects norms of a definitely Eastern European culture where the women are valued for being a bit Rubenesque and he idea of refinement dissipates after the Urals.

From left: President Dmitry Medvedev's wife Svetlana, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, Armenian President Serge Sarkisian's wife Rita pose for the press during a welcome ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010. Medvedev arrived in Armenia on a state visit. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Vladimir Rodionov, Presidential Press Service, Pool)

A state dinner was given in the evening of August 19 at the presidential residence on behalf of President Serzh Sargsyan and Rita Sargsyan in the honor of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva, Armenian presidential press service reported. During the dinner, according to the accepted protocol, the presidents of the two countries delivered toast…. Read More:http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2010/08/20/medvedev-sargsyan/

---The Russian President expressed gratitude to President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia for the warm reception, and for the warm words addressed to the Russian partners. “Our relations have a history of centuries. And yet, most remarkable is that in those hard historical times our peoples traditionally supported each other. There are many such examples,” Dmitry Medvedev said.---Read More:http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2010/08/20/medvedev-sargsyan/

For some reason, seeing Medvedev and Svetlana get off the plane recalls that entertaining but sublimely strange scene with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin getting off an airplane somewhere in South America:

This entry was posted in Shake Your Hips and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>