Photo provided to China Daily

While the APEC summit in Beijing ended almost two weeks ago, the style statement surrounding it still lingers. Both online and offline communities in China have since talked about the clothes that President Xi Jinping, foreign leaders and their spouses wore to various events there.

Following the meeting's tradition that started in the United States in 1993, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies, and their spouses, wear attire that is inspired by the host's local culture rather than formal Western suits or national costumes.

For this year's meeting in China, more than 300 clothing brands and fashion designers were initially invited to make their design pitches for the attire through rounds of selection procedure, but only nine designers were chosen to form a core design team.

Zhang Zhifeng, founder and art director of NE Tiger, was one of them.

But even for Zhang, whose clients range from "European aristocrats to Arabian royals", dressing the APEC leaders and their spouses came as a challenge.