Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Tamagni
January 30, 2012as an addition to my previous post Les Sapeurs, battle of the dandies here is an interesting -and beautiful- book that deserves your attention, ‘ Gentlemen of Bacongo‘ by Daniele Tamagni (hardcover – Jun 1, 2009).
It was brought to my attention by fellow blogger A.G.Nauta Couture who wrote an interesting post on Les Sapeurs du Congo
See also this video-report from the night club Saint-Hilaire in Kinshasa in August 1967
At the same time a new fashion was emerging in the Saint-Hilaire and other clubs in Kinshasa. To dress perfectly like Europeans. It had begun 500 yards across the Congo River in Brazzaville but had spread to become a cult of elegance among young Kinshasans.
They were members of what they called La Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes – Sapeurs for short. At the heart of the vision was a dream of Paris. It had started in the 1950s with trying to dress like post-war Parisian existentialists – or “existos”, but now it was all about wearing labels like Dior.
See also In pictures: Congo migrant fashion show
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excerpts from the blog by Adam Curtis
this is fantastic.big ups for posting this!
I’ve had the pleasure to see these pictures in an exhibition last year. That’s S T Y L E.