"In a poor city in a poor country on a poor continent, there is a group of people with a singular purpose: to look rich... or, rather, to look good..."
"For some [sapeurs] it is an obsession," says Mediavilla, who says the men he met work as electricians, in small shops or as marketing agents for fashion boutiques — hardly professions that support haute couture. "But they can also get [things] secondhand or buy from a friend, because not everyone is ready to spend such an amount of money on their clothes." "Creativity is very important," says Mediavilla. "It's not only about spending a lot of money on the clothes, but also the way they speak, the way they move. ... It's a way of presenting their lives and being somebody in a society that doesn't give you many opportunities. ... It's about [being] confident in oneself despite the circumstances."
