Dapper Dan
Founder, Dapper Dan of Harlem. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderauthorother@DapperDanHarlem ↗dapperdanofharlem.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
Daniel Day, known as Dapper Dan, revolutionized fashion in the 1980s by remixing luxury European brand monograms into bespoke streetwear for hip-hop figures from his Harlem boutique. He later partnered with Gucci in 2017 to open an official bespoke atelier and authored the memoir Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem.
1shows
1appearances
28statements
8resolved
5supported
1contradicted
63%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Dapper Dan said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Dapper Dan: Gucci copied his 1980s Diane Dixon jacket design
“Gucci created this jacket that I created in the eighties for Diane Dixon.”
Dapper Dan: Sonia Sotomayor represented Fendi during a raid on his store
“Sotomayor. Anybody know who she is? Sotomayor. She's a Supreme Court Justice. At this time, she's working for Fendi, as one of the lawyers for Fendi's. She comes in the store with the team.”
Dapper Dan: Major luxury brands copied his all-over logo format
“Today you see the reason Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Every major brand is using the format that I use. When you go to the store, look around, look at the artists, they have logos all over, and that's what I gave birth to, that idea.”
Dapper Dan: Luxury brands forced MTV to blur his custom clothing
“They go to Ted Demme and tell Ted Demme, if you show anything that Dapper Dan wears, we're not advertising with you. And that's when you start seeing the blur on what the rappers was wearing.”
Dapper Dan: Louis Vuitton hired Virgil Abloh reacting to his Gucci partnership
“Soon, as Gucci gives me this partnership, Louis had been number one for years, all of a sudden Louis brings up Virgil. Right? Now, you know that's a reaction, because Gucci put me in, and we got a collection ready, and we're shooting it out. Louis Vuitton reac…”
Dapper Dan: Creators must enter corporate rooms before building independently
“If we are to move up and move forward, we have to be in them rooms to see how these multinational corporations work before we can start building on our own.”
Dapper Dan: 1990s urban fashion brands failed by abandoning luxury positioning
“So they made it so that anybody can have it, anybody can do it, and then it went down, and they all failed. So between the time that I went underground and all these brands emerged, they all collapsed, but this time is giving all the brands, besides, besides T…”
Dapper Dan: Ralph Lauren created Polo Sport to target Black consumers
“Cause that's why Ralph Lauren opened up Ralph Lauren's sport and got that black model Tyson. Yeah. All that was to the lure to bring us in.”
Dapper Dan: Louis Vuitton x Supreme show attendees received note crediting him
“When Supreme made the partnership with Louis Vuitton, when they initiated The line, and everybody attending the show was issued a letter stating, ah, I want y'all to hear this in the back, stating that this whole collection is inspired by Dapper Dapper.”
Dapper Dan: Harlem's culture was forged by resilient Southern Black migrants
“And so we had the most strongest blacks that were leaving the South to go North. So I'm a product of those powerful people. So when I got, when the people who were in Harlem was the ones that stayed and put up with it, that wouldn't go back, they was really, t…”
Dapper Dan: I devised a method to fabricate credit cards
“So I devised this method by which I create my own credit cards.”
Dapper Dan: 'The Sting' Best Captures Non-Drug Street Hustling
“It's the epitome of everything you want to know about the inner workings of the streets, And how other things, other than drugs, how you can make money.”
Dapper Dan: High-Aspiration Street Hustlers Value Furs, Diamonds, and Gold for Status
“People with high aspirations They want everybody to know that they're moving up the ladder. So hustlers and everybody like that, especially hustling, the main thing they used to like is furs, diamonds, and gold.”
Dapper Dan Undercut Harlem Retailer A.J. Lester's on Andrew Marc Jackets
“So I'm paying 400 dollars for the jackets, and I'm selling them for eight. My competition was the most popular store in Harlem called A.J. Lester's, right? A.J. Lester's is selling the same coat for 1200.”
Dapper Dan never attended a runway show until partnering with Gucci
“I never ever went to a runway show where you see people, you know, the models in it. I never went to one until I did the deal with Gucci.”
Dapper Dan: Kidnapping attempt left bullet lodged in his neck
“So, two 31 morning, I'm sitting in my van, and these drug dealers, who were no longer making money, was struggling, attempted to kidnap me. I fought them off, and they shot me, and today, that's why I have a bullet at the base of my neck.”
Dapper Dan sold 30 to 40 custom Guess outfits daily, generating $100k
“I started making these little outfits for girls, these little guests with the little, like a little cheerleader skirt, and nice little tops with the guest symbol, and the skirt and the symbol match with that little guess what on it, and I started selling like …”
Dapper Dan leveraged FUBU's retail distribution footprint to sell underground apparel
“I had a friend who worked for FUBU, so I knew what their distribution was, so I went to every place they was at. Going west, and I come back and did the same thing going south.”
Dapper Dan: Hip hop will eventually morph into a new platform
“Now, you know, every 20 or 30 something years, we get a powerful cultural platform. You know, we've had jazz, calypso, Rock and roll. All these powerful platforms by which the whole world embraces our music that we can take advantage of, but they don't last fo…”
Dapper Dan's fashion career was inspired by a Fulani tailor in Liberia
“And so, ah, and that's, in Monrovia, Liberia, I had, ah, ah, a Fulani Taylor. And, ah, that's where the whole concept for me, ah, Getting involved in fashion.”
Dapper Dan: I served nine months in an Aruba prison over credit card fraud
“Next thing I know, they pull up on us, and I didn't I didn't see freedom for nine months.”
Dapper Dan: Early Credit Card Fraud Sentences Maxed Out at 90 Days
“Even if you got caught, you would get just 90 days. Nobody got more than 90 days.”
The other half of the tape: Dapper Dan's own voice is left out of every number here. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Statements about Dapper Dan, by other people (1)
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Dapper's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 a16zLEDGER | Founder, Dapper Dan of Harlem | 1 | 28 | 63% 5/8 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |