About la Sape
About the Project
La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elégantes (the Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People, or la Sape) is a social movement of well-dressed men from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Since the 1980s, these men, known as Sapeurs, have used fashion to explore identity building in politically and economically tumultuous postcolonial societies.
For her University of Oregon Clark Honors College undergraduate thesis, writer and photographer Hannah Steinkopf-Frank traveled to Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, to dive into the communities of Sapeurs living in their former African colonizers. This project was supported by the University of Oregon Clark Honors College and the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation. For her work, Hannah was awarded the Barbara Corrado Pope Award and a University of Oregon Undergraduate Library Research Award.
About the Author
Hannah Steinkopf-Frank is a Chicago-based writer and photojournalist passionate about using words and photos to explore what artistic expressions can reveal about societies close to and far from home.
Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Atlas Obscura, Bitch Media, In These Times, Columbia Journalism Review, JSTOR Daily, The Marshall Project, She Shreds, and Jewish Currents.
Press
Social Movements and Fashion Converge in Senior Thesis. University of Oregon. April, 2017.
Fashion Sense: On the streets of Europe with the clothes-conscious La Sape movement. University of Oregon College of Arts + Sciences. September, 2017.
Say hello!
Email: hsteinkopffrank@gmail.com
Twitter: @hsteinkopffrank
Instagram: @hsteinkopffrank
Website: hannahsteinkopf-frank.com
LinkedIN: linkedin.com/in/hannahsteinkopffrank