Consuming Passion for fashion, identity construction & entrepreneurial emergence at the bottom of the pyramid

ABSTRACT

This conceptual study seeks to rearticulate luxury fashion consumption epitomized by the sartorial sub-culture and highlight how an ‘entrepreneurial emergence’ has gradually taken root at the bottom-of-the-pyramid in a war-ravaged developing world context. The study is primarily qualitative in orientation, and interpretivist in nature. The study is based on a combination of general observations and analyses of media reports, and documentary analysis/ review of the extant literature. It surmises that ‘luxury fashion consumption’ among a sartorial subculture in a war-ravaged developing world context has brought about an ‘entrepreneurial emergence’ at the bottom-of-the-pyramid. It is now up to marketers to exploit the fortune at this lower rung of the economic ladder.

KEYWORDS:

• African Entrepreneurship
• bottom-of-the-pyramid
• sapeurism
• sartorial subculture
• Luxury Fashion
• Congo Brazzaville
• democratic Republic of Congo

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Available on the RT Documentary Channel online at: http://bit.ly/1MgFbVy [Accessed 12 December 2017]

2 See YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8qr8RHdKF8

3 See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHW6ZH8QP18

4 Available on the RT Documentary Channel online at: http://bit.ly/1MgFbVy [Accessed 12 December 2017]

5 Maclean (2017), Opcit

6 “Les Sapeuses”: The Lady Dandies of the DRC. An Exhibition running from 13 October to 16 December 2017, Brunei Gallery, SOAS. Retrieved from: https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/les-sapeuses/

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27PnUuXR_A

8 RT Documentary (Nov 16, 2015) The Congo Dandies: living in poverty and spending a fortune to look like a million dollars. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27PnUuXR_A&t=170s

9 Zing Tsjeng (2017). Ibid.

10 Costume designer Mr Gammon took 28 suitcases of elegant kit to the shoot with members of the Congolese Society of Ambianceurs and Elegant Persons (SAPE).

11 Photographer Per-Anders Pettersson who spent five days with sapeurs in Kinshasa in 2012.

12 Additional reporting by Sasha Gankin, Brazzaville. “Freedom of Fashion: Dress Codes and Sartorial Liberty”, Nathaniel Adams, TEDxJerseyCity. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UK-Q0_urz0