The Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes

Last Sunday my boyfriend surprised me with a couple of tickets for the World Press Photo 10 exhibition in Tokyo, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. I am hugely interested in photography as a media, and the field of photojournalism is definitely one of my favorite.
One picture is worth a thousand words, said some wise man or woman, and I do believe in this kind of iconic-zen-philosophy.

Being the fashion junkie I am, the pictures (and the story) that immidiately thrilled me, where the shots by Francesco Giusti, an Italian photographer, who portrayed some of the members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, in short "SAPE". The pictures can be somehow compared to high-class street-snapshots, like the Sartorialist ones. If I will ever have the chance to meet Mr. Scott again I will absolutely beg him to pay a visit to SAPE members. I am an appreciator of men's fashion and style, you got me.

The way those gentlemen from the Republic of Congo can be seen as modern dandies is fascinating, and shows how fashion does not know any boundary. And yes, FASHION IS ART.

From the World Press Photo 10 web-page dedicated to SAPE:

The Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Entertainers and Elegant People, SAPE), in Congo-Brazzaville, dates back to the 1920s and 1930s when privileged Congolese returned stylishly dressed from visits to Paris. Members of the SAPE, known as Sapeurs, see themselves as artists and often have nicknames and distinguishing gestures or poses. Some have celebrity status.

To view more pictures of SAPE members, please refer to this page