New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looked fetching in her ivory-colored Barong Tagalog and long black skirt at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gala dinner, but her comments about the outfit hurt fashion designer Albert Andrada, one of the couturiers tapped for the occasion.

New Zealand website newshub.co.nz, posted a video showing Ardern holding her Barong Tagalog. Asked what it smelled like, she replied, “I’m not going to sniff the shirt on camera.” She was quoted in the accompanying article to have described the barong as “scratchy” and “quite starched,” and that it smelled like “pineapple husk.”

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