‘They dressed however they could because no brand wanted to do it’: The complex relationship between hip-hop and designer clothing
May 16, 2023
In 2018, when then-Gucci designer Alessandro Michele was “inspired” by a bomber jacket designed by Dapper Dan a decade prior, social media users rescued the African-American tailor from being forgotten. Gucci decided to collaborate with him and reopen his Harlem workshop 25 years after the police closed it for infringing intellectual property, because Dan, since 1982, had made a fortune copying famous logos and stamping them on jackets and pants worn by Nas, Missy Elliot, Salt-N-Pepa and other big names in 1980s and 1990s hip-hop. “I do not dictate fashion. I translate culture,” Dan used to say. Read more at El País.
