![]() ![]() Dapper Dan withstood several raids, before the fatal one in 1992, spearheaded by future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that forced him to close his shop.īut that didn’t keep him out of fashion. The incident attracted attention, leading authorities to investigate the store, with its pricey jackets and high-profile clientele. In 1988, the shop made national headlines when Mike Tyson beat fellow boxer Mitch Green right outside of it. Day witnessed a drug dealer being kidnapped right in his store Day was later shot in the back and almost died while sitting in his Mercedes across the street. As alleged in the book and reported by Esquire, Russell Simmons “would come into the shop stoned on angel dust and just be ogling my female employees,” Day writes. Running a 24-hour shop catering to drug kingpins, professional boxers and rappers could get rowdy. He used the fabrics to make over-the-top pants and mink-lined jackets that sold for thousands of dollars. ![]() Getty ImagesĮventually, inspired by Andy Warhol, Dap taught himself to silk-screen, so he could print cotton and leather with Louis Vuitton, Gucci and MCM patterns. “We was buying so many, they didn’t know what was going on.” Salt-N-Pepa wore Dapper Dan’s creations in the 1980s. “I went back down to the Gucci store and bought every single canvas print garment bag they had in stock,” Day writes. After a client wore it to a party, everyone wanted one. His first prototype was a jacket trimmed with branded Gucci garment bags. He started creating clothes covered in luxe logos after seeing the commotion a drug dealer’s girlfriend and her Louis Vuitton clutch caused. He opened Dapper Dan’s Boutique on 125th Street in 1982, initially selling furs to the lords of the underworld. “I began to think, ‘Someone could fill that void.’ ” Harlem had only had one custom shop, and it had closed years ago. ![]() “I’d never met a black person who could do what did,” Day writes. In Liberia, he went to a tailor to have a suit made from scratch. Then, a 1974 trip to Africa - to see the famed Muhammad Ali-George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” match - changed his life. He was arrested in his early 20s for dealing, and, after getting clean, continued to “hustle,” playing craps and dabbling in credit-card fraud. (He earned the nickname Dapper Dan from a stylish elder gambler.) By the time he entered high school, Day’s older brothers were already deep in heroin, and Day got into drugs, too. When he was 13, Day began playing dice, racking up thousands of dollars a day from outsmarting flush drug dealers. Dapper Dan’s influence is everywhere, from Balenciaga’s oversize fur-lined leather coats to Louis Vuitton’s flashy “LV” belt buckles.ĭay traces his evolution from fashion outlaw to oracle in a candid new memoir, “ Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem,” (Penguin Random House) out Tuesday.īorn in 1944 in an East Harlem tenement, Day writes that his family was “poor as hell.” His father worked three jobs to support Day and his six siblings, and Day was “always hungry,” with sore feet from walking around with holes in his shoes. Now, 27 years later, luxe labels, including Louis Vuitton, who sought to shut him down, are copying him. His Harlem boutique drew gangsters, athletes and hip-hop stars, from Mike Tyson to Salt-N-Pepa - until it was raided for trademark infringement in 1992. In the 1980s, Daniel Day, better known as Dapper Dan, made a name for himself selling leather jackets and tracksuits emblazoned with bootleg Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Fendi logos. ![]()
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