The world is rife with tonne of different subcultures so naturally picking on a little on the difficult side right?

What I've found the most challenging during the selection process is finding one that isn't kind of dead and buried if you catch my drift. A dozen of subcultures that I looked at mostly died out in the '80's/'90's, so finding someone to interview, and assist in the research of the subculture, is almost impossible.

I did, however, narrow my selection down dramatically and looked at a few that would be interesting, yet more current.

Advanced Style, now that is another incredibly interesting one. We all have that preconceived notion that all seniors dress like 1950's grandparents, tweed flat caps and suits for the gents and ladies in long pleated skirts and white permed hair. But do you know how cool the older generation actually are? 

Ari Seth Cohen has given so many individuals a global outreach by photographing interesting people over the age of 50 (how is that even a 'senior' age?!) and sharing those images online, in books and even in his documentary film.

La Sape / Sapeurs are not one of those accessible ones, and I knew that from the get go, but they are so interesting and I would absolutely have loved to have taken that route. Sadly I'm not based in Africa.

That aside, let me give you a brief overview of just why they piqued my interest. They'll definitely attract you too.

The Sapeurs are a group of gents from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of Congo (based in two different cities) who abide by a particular (bold) gentlemanly code of dress that has become a cultural statement, handsomely dressed and looking as dapper as I can imagine one to appear.

But how fine do these chaps look?

Hipster is so generic these days and as soon as that was on my condensed list, I tossed it aside and decided that no way on this earth was I going to be that kind of millennial. Shall we move on?

All photo credits to Pinterest & rightful owners.