A legend with something of an everlasting influence on high fashion, Daniel Day, better known as Dapper Dan, is widely regarded as the godfather of streetwear.
A self-taught tailor, the musically minded, energetic style Dan popularised laid the foundations of hip-hop’s visual identity. With his famed 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, which saw many celebrity clients over the years including Eric B. & Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, LL Cool J, Missy Elliot, Naomi Campbell, Diddy, and Jay Z.
Whether it is dressing music's coolest stars or highlighting his signature aesthetic at fashion's biggest events, Dapper Dan has firmly cemented himself as a formidable tastemaker, designer, and creative. In 2017, the high-end luxury fashion powerhouse, Gucci, teamed up with Dan on a collaborative line of menswear inspired by his archive, released a limited-edition book, “Dapper Dan’s Harlem”, and made him the face of #GucciTailoring. Dan also had a hand in standout outfits from the 2019 Met Gala which saw the designer deck out Ashley Graham, Regina Hall, and Karlie Kloss in custom Gucci x Dapper Dan.
His bestselling memoir, “Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem,” is a poignant, yet inspiring story of how Dapper Dan evolved as a cultural icon, fusing street style with high sartorial elegance. He has been featured on notable platforms such as The New York Times, Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, CNN, the Smithsonian Museum, the Museum at FIT, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.