Dapper Dan On Creating Style, Logomania And Working With Gucci.
In 1992, Daniel Day was forced to close his legendary clothing boutique, Dapper Dan’s Boutique, after Fendi took legal action against what it argued was the streetwear designer’s trademark infringement for using the company’s logo in his creations. The fashion house won the battle, but Dapper Dan won the war. Day’s creations, which incorporated the logos of fashion houses like Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton and which were quickly adopted by rap stars, have since become synonymous with the golden age of hip-hop. (His use of those logos has drawn comparisons to the sampling going on in the music at the time.) Decades later, Day frequently collaborates with the same high-fashion world that once legally prosecuted him: with Gucci, for example, he recently collaborated on a menswear line and an atelier in Harlem. Gucci is the same company whose creative director, Alessandro Michele, drew charges of cultural appropriation in 2017 for designing a balloon-sleeved, fur-paneled bomber jacket he said was a “homage” to a similar product from Day’s 1980s-era work. That twist is not lost on Day “If you borrow, you have to make sure that everybody is involved,” said Day, the 74-year-old author of the new memoir, “Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem.” “When you tip the scales,” he continued, “that’s when it’s wrong.” Read more at The New York Times.
