REINVENTING DANDIES

"BIEN SAPÉ" MEANS STYLISH AND "SAPEURS" ARE AFRICAN

MEN WHO MAKE OVERDRESSING AN ART

 Baudouin Mouanda, Brazzaville, 2008

"Congolese sapeurs, iconoclastic elegance for a subversive philosophy"
 (In French, with photos)

Born in 1920's Brazzaville, the movement mocked the conquerors by caricaturing their dress :

• In the 1980's it combined night-club wear with dressing for church: There is no Muslim equivalent.

• Trousers, jackets, vests, linings, collars, neckties,socks, shoes, pocket handkerchiefs, cuff links: Elements are considered for themselves and their combination is a work of art, worn to go out, impress and celebrate.  

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Sapeurs appear in...

• Folk art

• Fashion shows

Christian Germain for a show at the 18th's City Hall

• Movies: Black Micmac takes place in La Goutte d'Or where African immigrants try to bewitch a City official who wants to evict them. The award-winning movie is gently ironical toward both sides, but a terrifying police raid shows where its sympathies lie.

 By Thomas Gilou, with Jacques Villaret, Isaac de Bankole and Félicité Wouassi, 1986

• A book

Preface by Paul Smith

• A travel agency 

• At the Paris 360 music factory, the Hôtel de Ville métro and in La Goutte d'Or (at the end of the page)

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For more African photos, please click.

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Sapeurs rejoice in life, refuse self-pity 

and do not sink meekly into a crowd. 

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Next,  

Politicizing Black men's fashion