Originally a street hustler who made his coin from dice gambling and manufacturing fake credit cards, Dapper Dan, officially known as Daniel Day, spotted an opportunity in 1982 to merge hip-hop streetwear with high-fashion.

On 125th street Harlem, New York, he opened ‘Dapper Dan’s Boutique’, a store that would forever change the landscape of fashion. Working 24 hours a day Dan’s clientele (hustlers, rappers, b-boys and b-girls) often turned up late into the night from the club
and sought a product that represented their unique style.

“Dapper Dan was all about celebrating the excess which black people bring to style and adornment.” says Dr Rikki Byrd, the founder of The Black Fashion Archive, who also has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Black Studies from Northwestern University, Illinois.

“He’s a central figure in the ways that hip hop artists who were making a certain level of capital that they hadn’t made before were able not only to go to Dapper Dan’s store in Harlem, but were welcomed in this store in Harlem in the 80s.

“This is because they were not being treated properly when they would go shopping at other mainstream stores or high-end stores in places like New York. There was discrimination and racism happening in these stores that even though their pockets could afford what they wanted to purchase they weren’t welcome.”

From day one, Dap certainly had a niche, and he knew it. His garments were rebellious in nature, and subsequently he attracted those least controlled by the laws or public opinion.

He would take the iconic logos from brands privileged in history – Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, MCM – and rework them into something exclusive, and most importantly representative of black culture.

Noted in his memoir, he says, “I was taking the logos to places the brands never would and making it look good on us. The looser-fitting silhouettes of baggy pants, bomber jackets, and tracksuits represented a rebellion against the mainstream styles sold in luxury stores.

“They had to see that I had taken these brands and pushed them into new territory. I knocked them up, I didn’t knock them off.

“I blackenized them.”

Throughout his ten-year tenure at the helm of his boutique, he stole from the luxury fashion industry and fed it to his clientele. Hip-hop rappers Eric. B and Rakim and athletes Mike Tyson and Diane Dixon were just some of the names that graced his presence.

His popularity was unheard before in New York, and the fashion houses couldn’t keep up.

Dan noted in his memoir that one of the sweatsuits he designed for hip-hop artist Raekwon, which appeared in a music video, became so popular that it drove fans to Gucci stores, only for them to leave confused when they discovered that Gucci didn’t sell sweatsuits.

Dr Byrd says, “Many of them were slow to move in inviting them to be a part of fashion campaigns, inviting them to be creative directors, and I think that’s something that is super familiar with us now in the late Virgil Abloh and Pharrell Williams.

“Back then it was not common for LL Cool J to be in an advertisement for a fashion brand.”

Luxury logos were like ecstasy for the hip-hop community, and Dan’s manipulation of them into his garments was the early groundwork of what is now known as ‘logomania’ in the industry.

The trend ‘logomania’ has stayed relevant in modern-day fashion, taking the logos of streetwear and luxury brands and overexposing them, establishing the logo as a central design element. Its impact is still synonymous with hip-hop culture today, ensuring representation of their wealth is displayed upon their style.

Dr Rikki Byrd said: “Brands weren’t putting their logos on things, but the mania of it was
really stemming from Dapper Dan. I don’t think it’s a mistake that you started seeing
their logos over clothes and different types of objects. I don’t know how much credit he
would get from all of the luxury houses, but Dan certainly had a hand in it.”

In 1992 Dan was sued by numerous luxury fashion houses. Most notably Fendi came for
his name and for the next 25 years recognition of his work went largely unnoticed.

However, in 2018 when Gucci released a balloon-sleeved mink bomber jacket that showed similarities to Dan’s 1989 Louis Vuitton version for Diane Dixon, online outrage forced Gucci to design a one-off collaboration with Dapper Dan. This celebrated his legacy and allowed his re-entry into the fashion world and from it came an autobiography and a film with A$AP Rocky, paying homage to Harlem fashion.

Despite this Gucci collaboration, his legacy had already made waves in the industry.

Whilst Dap was reworking the styles and creating something unique, his garments were unlicensed. In 1998 Jil Sander and Puma changed that. They designed a sneaker that would officially merge hip-hop streetwear and luxury fashion forever. The result was the ‘Jil Sander King’, a shoe Puma described as a sleek, unisex sneaker that harmonised Jil Sander’s signature chic with Puma’s sporty dynamism.

In a 2023 interview, Heiko Desens, Global Creative Director of Puma commented on the collaboration. He said: “If you look back, there are only a handful of truly revolutionary fashion moments, and I’d say that this is probably one of the most impactful, both
creatively and commercially

“At the time, fashion was a very elite, exclusive space, particularly when it came to footwear and it was something that the world hadn’t seen before, so it definitely came as a bit of a shock.”

The Jil Sander King set the tone for years to come, and in 2017, two huge worlds would collide again in the collaboration of Supreme and Louis Vuitton. They broke the rules like Jil Sander and Puma did in 1998, but on a much larger scale, redefining the resale market and paving the way for other fashion houses. Suddenly luxury giants Gucci, Maison Margiela, Dior and more were taking a risk.

Now, streetwear and luxury collaborations are considered standard practice. Luxury fashion houses doused in history and cultural excellence have latched onto the popular, nonconformist style of streetwear, and high profit, exclusive collections have fed into the ‘logomania’ that Dapper Dan had established decades ago.

Alongside collaborations, the industry has seen a new generation of brands tailoring their image to solely exist within the luxury and hip-hop streetwear scene, with Fear of God, Off-White and Rhude being just to name a few of recent times.

Fashion is often said to come around in circles, but Dapper Dan changed history. When he merged fashion houses and modern hip-hop streetwear looks for the first time, the intrinsically racist industry that rejected black creatives looked down with shame. He began a revolution, empowering fashion with hip-hop and founding ‘logomania’, a trend which we see everywhere in life, from the iconic ‘tick’ on Nike sneakers to the Gucci ‘G’.