Monetizing a Passion
For drinks, music and gossip, Parisian Sapeurs gather in the 18th arrondissement at Sape & Co, the clothing store of Jocelyn Armel, more commonly known as Le Bachelor.
The Brazzaville native said he wanted to come to Europe since he was 11 years old. In the early 1970s, he was inspired by the “Parisians,” older figures, who had completed “le retour,” the return of Congolese, particularly Sapeurs, back to Africa.
“We said in Brazzaville at the time that to die without having seen Paris is not a beautiful death,” he said. “The best is to die in Paris. That’s the top.”
At age 16, Armel immigrated to continue his education and remembered spending all of his money on clothes. Because not many Congolese lived in France, they hosted parties at their homes, and he said “you could not go to a Congolese party if you were not wearing the latest suits.”
He also recalled the early “concours” (“competitions”) a held at Paris’s Rex Cinema that would soon become a staple in the movement to see “who was the most elegant.”
Mixed with these stories of youthful fêtes are the sacrifices he made to keep up appearances despite limited means. He said he bought only a kilo of pasta and a single sardine because that “sufficed.”
“Food meant nothing... everything I had I put into clothes.”
“La Sape is a way to please yourself. You don’t dress only to hide your genitals. You dress to please yourself and please others. La Sape is not only suits. We can look elegant in jeans.”
Although he didn’t discuss in detail the difficulties of living in France, he did say at the time that “the French man, the White man, did not wear bright clothes like the Africans,” as they stuck to black, which he associated with death. In contrast, he said he always dressed “like it is summer” and that la Sape continues to be the “anecdote” to the reality of the everyday.
Unlike many Sapeurs, Armel has found a way to monetize his love of clothes. In 2005, he opened Sape & Co. selling his own brand Connivences (meaning “complicity” or “collusion” in French) that offers seasonal lines of colorful suits, shirts and accessories.
While originally catering to a Congolese clientele, with increased media attention from European and international outlets, his store now serves people from all over the world looking to add more color into their wardrobes.
“There are lawyers,” he said. “There are young students. There are unionists. People from all social backgrounds come here, are found here. So it’s no longer a boutique that believes la Sape is just African. Today, everybody can relate to la Sape, anyone who wants to dress differently.”
When asked if he is concerned that la Sape will lose its connection to the Congos’ histories, he said no. While he explained that the movement had originally been a “search for identity” connected to the Congos’ political struggles, now, the clothes can be used by anyone to find joy in life.
