Intergenerational Fashion
At a barber shop in the Château Rouge neighborhood, the “Little Africa” of Paris, Sapeurs Ben Mouchacha and Kapangla Patoe shared their journeys of coming to France.
Mouchacha grew up in the town of Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo. There, he helped start a social club during this period called The Rolling Stone. As a young man who dropped out of school, he did not have many clothes and said he borrowed designer items from friends who had already traveled to Europe.
“That’s called ‘la mine,’” he said. “It’s a form of solidarity and a form of living together. You see it at this level because it is here that it is necessary to understand the behavior of Sapeurs. It’s for this that when we talk about Sapeurs, we say, ‘La Sape, it’s not violent.’ That’s to say la Sape is to live together.”
When he came to Europe in 1983 when he was 21, “it was difficult for a Congolese to have a business. It was difficult for a Congolese to be the head of a business,” said Mouchacha, who previously owned a Congolese restaurant in Paris and currently runs a cleaning business.
He said that the Congolese community strengthened due to a more connected relationship between immigrants from the two countries.
“Now, there is a great solidarity and a good attitude because over time, the two Congos no longer are distinguishable,” he said.
In contrast, Patoe said it was easier for him to move to Paris in 2002 at age 19 because he already had family in France. From a young age, he dreamed of living in Europe because his father, who worked as an architect/decorator for DRC President Mobutu Sese Seko, often traveled to Brussels.
He said his father had significant financial resources during this time, but encouraged Patoe to not become involved in la Sape because it cost too much money. He wanted Patoe to go to school and have a job in the formal sector to make a living.
When Patoe came to France, he realized life was harder than expected; the films he had seen had given him the perception that “in Europe, everything comes free.”
“I saw that the reality is that it’s necessary to work hard to be someone,” he said. When he arrived, he said he restored buildings as a plasterer. The first designer clothing he remembered buying with his own money was a Christian Lacroix jacket and pants and a pair of Weston shoes.
Now, he showed off his private service card for John Galliano, one of his favorite designers. He said, “But as we [Sapeurs] have always loved clothes, every month I must buy a piece from Dolce & Gabbana, a piece from Gucci, and a piece from John Galliano to show that I am a great Sapeur.”
