British photographer Tariq Zaidi presents a fashion subculture of Kinshasa & Brazzaville: La Sape, Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes. Its followers are known as 'Sapeurs' ('Sapeuses' for women). Most have ordinary day jobs as taxi-drivers, tailors and gardeners, but as soon as they clock off they transform themselves into debonair dandies. Sashaying through the streets they are treated like rock stars - turning heads, bringing 'joie de vivre' to their communities and defying their circumstances.
Summary: "This book provides a fascinating insight to the vibrant street style of the "Sapeurs", the elegant and immaculately dressed dandies from the heart of the Congo. The Sapeurs today belong to 'Le SAPE' (Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, or the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant people) - one of the world's most exclusive clubs. Members have their own code of honour, codes of professional conduct and strict notions of morality. It is a world within a world within a city. Designer brands of suits and accessories are of the utmost importance to Sapeurs - Pierre Cardin, Roberto Cavalli, Dior, Fendi, Gaultier, Gucci, Issey Miyake, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Yohji Yamamoto - are their patron saints. Unlike some US hip-hop gangs who are dressed in similar fine threads, there is no bloodshed here - here your clothes do all the fighting for you, otherwise you are not fit to be called a Sapeur. The result is a unique and inspiring style, that has captured the imagination of people all over the world - the sapeurs are now truly the kings of elegance"-- Publisher's web site.
The individualism of the French peasantry during the nineteenth century has frequently been asserted as one of its most striking characteristics. In this 1999 book, Alan Baker challenges this orthodox view and demonstrates the extent to which peasants continued with traditional, and developed new, forms of collective action. He examines representations of the peasantry and discusses the discourse of fraternity in nineteenth-century France in general before considering specifically the historical development, geographical diffusion and changing functions of fraternal voluntary associations in Loir-et-Cher between 1815 and 1914. Alan Baker focuses principally upon associations aimed at reducing risk and uncertainty and upon associations intended to provide agricultural protection. A wide range of new voluntary associations were established in Loir-et-Cher - and indeed throughout rural France - during the nineteenth century. Their historical geography throws new light upon the sociability, upon the changing mentalités, of French peasants, and upon the role of fraternal associations in their struggle for survival.
The influx of African migrants into Europe in recent years has raised important issues about changing labor economies, new technologies of border control, and the effects of armed conflict. But attention to such broad questions often obscures a fundamental fact of migration: its effects on ordinary life. Affective Circuits brings together essays by an international group of well-known anthropologists to place the migrant family front and center. Moving between Africa and Europe, the book explores the many ways migrants sustain and rework family ties and intimate relationships at home and abroad. It demonstrates how their quotidian efforts—on such a mass scale—contribute to a broader process of social regeneration. The contributors point to the intersecting streams of goods, people, ideas, and money as they circulate between African migrants and their kin who remain back home. They also show the complex ways that emotions become entangled in these exchanges. Examining how these circuits operate in domains of social life ranging from child fosterage to binational marriages, from coming-of-age to healing and religious rituals, the book also registers the tremendous impact of state officials, laws, and policies on migrant experience. Together these essays paint an especially vivid portrait of new forms of kinship at a time of both intense mobility and ever-tightening borders.
A beautifully tailored history of this fashion staple—at once a garment of tradition, power, and subversion. The Suit unpicks the story of this most familiar garment, from its emergence in western Europe at the end of the seventeenth century to today. Suit-wearing figures such as the Savile Row gentleman and the Wall Street businessman have long embodied ideas of tradition, masculinity, power, and respectability, but the suit has also been used to disrupt concepts of gender and conformity. Adopted and subverted by women, artists, musicians, and social revolutionaries through the decades—from dandies and Sapeurs to the Zoot Suit and Le Smoking—the suit is also a device for challenging the status quo. For all those interested in the history of menswear, this beautifully illustrated book offers new perspectives on this most mundane, and poetic, product of modern culture.
“An excellent idea for a book. . . . Next time I spend more than $40 on an article of clothing, I’ll run it by Linett first.” —The New York Times Book Review In a culture where trends are born and die every minute, maintaining style and effortlessness at every age requires that little extra something—the cool factor. Being “cool” isn’t about chasing trends or defying age but about following a few key guidelines. Yes, the cool factor is a skill that can be learned! In this photo-packed guide, Andrea Linett, a famed personal stylist and founding creative director of Lucky magazine, offers easy-to-implement, actionable tips that will change the way women dress. The tips are modeled by real-life style icons like Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Christene Barberich, founder of Refinery29, as Andrea highlights the ingenious ways in which they skillfully pile on layers, or dress up denim for work or a party. The book is organized into chapters that include wardrobe classics, denim, leather, suits, dressing up, and accessories, and features style hacks that turn an outfit into a masterpiece (choosing shoes that instantly slim you, combining tough and feminine pieces, and accessorizing a day-to-night look). Packed with useful lists and examples, this guide is the would-be stylish woman’s best friend.
1. The Art of Gnidnarb Need for a new way of experiencing Branding as a mirror Magical Effect: the Hitchcock clinic The consumer as co-designer The curse of empowerment The Consuman Being Emocoding A coat of values 2. The Multiple Identity Crisis Democratic problems The social trapeze artist - Identity crisis 1: Good honest coffee - Identity crisis 2: Best is cheapest - Identity crisis 3: The new besiegers - Identity crisis 4: More good honest coffee - Identity crisis 5: The Paul Smith rip off The consumer taken hostage Acquired helplessness Escapism New eras 3. The Discovery of Identity I am not myself (and actually never have been) The other as a stranger Whom do I belong to? Mirror image, let's hear it Experience of identity through the camera Your unique identity development The eye of the other From the English pub 4. The Social Jungle Social reflexes Being single is hard work Looks as an instrument for social benchmarking Tribe formation along the lines of a code The basic 'in or out' game Social dominoes Personal buffer: the comfort zone As long as you look good Ignore it New Social Order: Respect! 5. Status and Symbol The Code of status Three Scarcity Trends 1. Thin as status indicator 2. 'Ordinary' as status indicator 3. Bare and empty as status indicator Status and gap Buying off our guilt D Fence Lost secret Politically incorrect: incorrect politics 6. The Basic Design The design matrix Round-trip to Paradise The Suitcase project Feeling like animation Branding and backwards Purchasing drive: 'I shop, therefore I am' Waste economy Puppets on a string Virtually real Visual statements of fashion and trendiness Lifestyle as fashion The Art of Credibility 7. Makeover Visible and invisible moments The Great Positioning Choice Juggling self-control 1. Predator or prey 2. Group thinking 3. Skin or hide Visual culture and the manipulation of images The Emocode as an index for identity experience values One of the herd or free individual Between two worlds The Invisible Man 8. Sanctuary The need for a bubble Safe on the inside, shiny on the outside Sunglasses The mobile phone Designer Teeth The Coded Society Shoes New metasystems Sophistication in identity design 9. Transformation A new life I M Perfect: Redemption, liberation of yourself Mental makeover Scarifications Liberation from the self-image Transformation of perception1 Hype Design A transformation in your life Transformation by looking outwards Innocence regained The 'I-am-Me' moment The three crucial elements Transformation through self-friendship About the author Works cited List of Illustrations Further sources of inspiration Index.
Sin Salida' ('No Way Out') by photographer Tariq Zaidi documents the impacts of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) and its rival Barrio 18 gang members on El Salvador. By depicting the gang members, police, prisons, murder sites, funerals, and the government?s war against the gangs, Zaidi illustrates the control the gangs have over the wider Salvadoran society, the violence through which they operate and the grief and loss resulting from the violence.
Black men appropriating, subverting, and reinventing the dress styles of society elites--described as "high-styled rebels" by author Shantrelle P. Lewis--are influencing the language of contemporary fashion. Dandy Lion presents and celebrates the black dandy movement, and its designers and tailors, in photographs and stories from all over the world.
