African Dirndl from:
D´URBAN DIRNDL (Berlin)
Dirndlherz (Vienna)
Dirndl al africaine (Munich)
Drindl is a word in the Bavarian dialect for girl. So the dirndl wore a dirndl. It was the working dress of the peasant in the alpine region. It consists of a bodice, a blouse (the former bra), a long skirt and a long apron (to protect the skirt from dirt). With the beginning of the tourism at the end of the 19. century the urban population in Munich and Vienna discovered these costume and pimped it up with silver and silk. On the other hand the countryside people developed local costume traditions and associations. The dirndl today has a tight bustier with a square décolleté, a white blouse, a wide skirt and an apron. You can cover your hips and pronounce your bust – even an A cup. It looks pretty on small or voluptuous women. You can be sexy or cover up. Contrary to tradition some show their legs in short skirts. Or sport sneaker instead of ballerinas or lacquer pumps. The season for dirndl is the Oktoberfest. Only since twenty years most of the 3 million female visitors from every continent show up with a dirndl at these 16 crazy days in Munich.
Sena, Germany
House of Dereon, USA
Kofi Ansah, Ghana
“Societe des Ambianceurs et Personnes Elegantes” La SAPE
Les Sapeurs de Congo
La Societe des Ambianceurs et Personnes Elegantes are young dandies - also known as ”les Parisiens” who roam the streets of Brazzaville and Bacongo in Western suits and usually with cigars, and the occasional pipe, between their lips. The general rule for Brazza Sapes is said to be that they wear no more than three colors at a time. In fact what this seems to mean is three tones, not counting white. Pocket squares aren’t folded but stuffed in and left to spill out, rakishly
The first Grand Sapeur was G.A. Matsoua, who in 1922 was the first Congolese to return from Paris dressed entirely in French clothes. While it is not entirely clear where exactly the SAPE movement started from, it appears to have been heavily promoted by Papa Wemba, a pioneer soukous (African rumba) musician who in the 1970s began upholding the Sapeur culture as a set of moral codes with heavy emphasis on high standards of personal cleanliness, hygiene and smart dress among Congolese youths regardless of societal differences.
This moral code, however, also had a political motive. Papa Wemba initially introduced the culture as a challenge to the strict dress codes that were imposed by the government at that time who effectively outlawed Western styles of dress. In 1974 after the DRC had recently come out of colonisation and had gained its independence from France, the government lead by Mobutu Sese Seko banned all European and Western styles of imported clothing in favour of a return to traditional African clothing. Papa Wemba challenged these strict dress codes by insisting that it should be a pleasure rather than a crime to wear clothes from Paris and by setting an example for impressionable young men by dressing outlandishly. At this time, the culture also was heavily associated with music, since Papa Wemba supported young talented musicians such as Koffi Olomide.
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