New York, Paris, and Milan may be fashion capitals, but they’re not the only hotspots of fashion innovation.
Check out these niche fashion locales and subcultures from around the world that play by their own rules.
La Sape – Republic of Congo
Style: Loud, brightly colored, patterned, tailored suiting.
The sapeurs and sapeuse of Brazzaville and Kinshasa stand in stark contrast to their down-to-earth surroundings. La sape is a flamboyant, high-fashion offshoot of European sartorial taste born from French colonialism in the 1920s and ‘30s and revived in the ‘70s. It’s a head-turning style full of swagger and personality.
Harajuku District – Tokyo, Japan
Style: Mixed-trend, mismatched, often highly colorful, where the only rule is: there are no rules.
Tokyo’s Harajuku style is a no-holds-barred, colorful mash-up of traditional, vintage, and contemporary fashions. A blend of Japan’s traditional and kawaii cultures with a hearty helping of western influences. It’s the ultimate rejection of whatever’s currently mainstream in fashion; a subculture untethered from a single trend or timeline with a sole focus on fashion creativity.
Burmese Punk – Yangon, Myanmar
Style: Mohawks, studded leather, combat boots, DIY, and an underground attitude.
Like the American punk scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s, the punk subculture of Myanmar sprang up in response to cultural volatility, social revolution, and authoritarianism. At the forefront, an edgy music scene raging against the man; in the background, a socially conscious group vying for the betterment of their community by collecting food for the hungry and distributing school supplies. But unlike the American punks, who represented the fringe and the youth, Myanmar’s punks have found widespread solidarity due to unrest across generations.
Afrometal Cowboys – Gaborone, Botswana
Style: Black leather, metal chains, studs meets cowboy hats, fringe,
Ranchers by day, headbangers by night. Not unlike the Punks of Burma, Botswana’s metalheads have taken distinctly American styles and made them their own. Their African roots lend an animalistic twist to the merged style as well, with animal horns and hunting knife accessories.
Trival Boots – Mexico City, Mexico
Style: Traditional boots with long, absurdly pointed tips paired with western shirts, skinny jeans and cowboy hats.
Imagine a cowboy boot with a 10-inch tip. Now imagine an all-male dance squad in the middle of a choreographed dance-off at a Mexico City nightclub. An ironic fashion trend born from the tribal guarachero electronic music scene that has become so popular that these dance troupes are entertaining at weddings, quinceaneras, and other celebrations.
