HIP HOP FASHION ORIGINATOR GETTING HIS DUE Dapper Dan

The former unsung fashion icon from the wrong side of New York By Serena Lee

Before he reinvented haute couture, he was a poor but bright boy with holes in his shoes who gambled with drug dealers and spent time in jail. He pioneered high-end streetwear, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs - today he is finally in his rightful place as a shining symbol of American fashion history. Dapper Dan was shamelessly appropriated.

Dapper Dan’s real name is Daniel R. Day. He was born on August 8th 1944 in Harlem, New York. His parents were poor, often holding down three and four jobs at a time to feed Dan and his six siblings. He was forced to wear his brothers’ hand-me-downs.

If you have ever wondered who the originator of the street style aesthetic is and whose innovations started the ‘80s fashion hip-hop revolution? Well it’s Dapper Dan.

In 2018, the Gucci fashion label blatantly ripped off one of Dan’s designs and they were swiftly called out online. They sent a model down the runway wearing a print leather and fur coat with ballooning sleeves. There was an outcry on social media, with high profile fashion names, pointing out the design was a replica of a 1989 custom look Dan had created for the US sprinter Diane Dixon. The only difference was the logo on the material. The very nature of fashion is to regurgitate looks, but this was a copy without the usual tribute high-end brands regularly give, citing their inspirations, but not this time - Times were tough in the ‘40s and ‘50s in Harlem. Dan grew up respecting the street hustlers whom most would consider criminals. His poor Harlem surroundings saw him caught up in what was known as “the life” as a teenager. He dropped out of school, was affiliated with gangs and got into gambling. The streets named him Dapper Dan, known for his style of playing craps (dice). Eventually he got out of “the life” and went back to school. Sponsored by the Urban League Educational Programme he had the chance to tour Africa.

Inspired by the street dressmakers and tailors there, he decided to open a store. He raised money to travel back to Africa and buy a plethora of material to take back to the US. Dan’s boutique opened in 1982. The school of hard knocks had sharpened his awareness to the urban beat of the ghetto and formed the basis of his creative calling, a blessing in disguise some would say.

Dan faced prejudice as manufacturers and wholesalers wouldn’t work or sell to him in Harlem so Dan would go to the stores like Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton and buy the large bags, cut them up and redesign them into new garments and products. He was refashioning heritage European brands, transforming the style, material and logos for his community, a community the brands themselves had never considered in their marketing programmes.

He told the New Yorker in 2013 “I started putting —inside and outside, so you could reverse It.” In the early 1980’s he would utilise the wrong side of a garment emphasising the lining, facing and labels sparking the ‘logomania’ trend.