Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem
A Memoir
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4.7 • 125 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in Time
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time.
Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z.
By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change.
Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem
“Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef
“What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You may not know his name, but if you’ve followed hip-hop since the ’80s, you’ve seen Dapper Dan’s style on rappers from LL Cool J to JAY-Z: a sharp, neat look that’s both street-smart and aspirational. Dapper Dan—also known as Daniel Day—tells his own story, from a dice-playing, drug-dealing childhood in ’50s Harlem to a life-changing jail stint to his self-reinvention as the man whose legendary all-night boutique brought high fashion to streetwear. Appearances from celebrities like Muhammad Ali and Beyoncé make it seem like he’s dressed every Black superstar of the last 50 years, but despite the star power, the most fascinating and uplifting stories are all Dap.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this moving memoir, Day (aka Dapper Dan) chronicles his rise from a poor black boy growing up in 1940s Harlem to becoming a notable designer of streetwear. With clients ranging from gangsters and pimps to Jay-Z and Beyonc , Day saw each customer as "an actor auditioning to be in this big, generational movie I'm making." Day was a talented poet and writer, as well as a hustler who beat street hoods in dice games and dropped out of high school at 15. In 1974, Day began making and selling clothes, and he opened his first store on 125th Street in 1982. He taught himself textile printing and, during New York's crack epidemic in the 1980s, built a clothing business that inspired what boxers and rappers would wear for years to come; in 2018, he opened a store on Lenox Avenue, with Gucci as a partner. Day writes that he "never thought of as an artist, or in fashion industry terms... I was playing jazz with fashion." In describing his life, Day also provides a fascinating portrait of the Harlem in his youth, "before the heroin game overtook the numbers game, before crack overtook heroin." Day wonderfully captures the style of Harlem and its evolution throughout the decades.
Customer Reviews
Great Read
This autobiography Dapper Dan was an excellent read. I was so surprised and inspired by the trial and tribulations this man went through and turned it around in the end!!
A role model of a man, a father, an artist and a fighter
When I opened this book, the inspiration or tricks from a fashion designer’s successful journey was what I was looking for. Closing it, I’m touched with a way of surviving and fighting, a way of treating human beings and the world, and a way of making peace with myself.
His book it’s like a time machine.
This man is walking museum full of game, and has a keen since of fashion. What I picked up from this man is the principles that never died nor did he comprise. All race and age that can read need to reads this platinum jewelry see through his eyes. What the world was through the beginning, middle and still rising stages of hip hop.