La Sape is a fashion-loving community in Congo. They are willing to struggle to eat instead of giving up their hobby of wearing famous European designer clothes.
La Sape stands for Société des ambianceurs et des personnes elegantes or Society of Atmosphere-setters and Elegant People. This community is based in Congo, Africa.
Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and so on are the clothes they wear to look eccentric.
Launching the New York Times, although the difficulty of living is still relatively high there, the price of luxury La Sapeur clothes (La Sape activists) can be up to three times their monthly income.
La Sape is believed to be a way to build confidence in people who do this activity.
It doesn't matter if you eat or not, the most important thing is to look dapper.
Even so, the La Sape are very anti-KW goods or imitations.
Counterfeit goods are considered an insult.
Even so, there are critics who say La Sapeur's lifestyle has created a crisis for Congo's traditional culture.
Not a few who finally decided to stop being La Sapeur.
But not a few are still continuing this culture.