“Fresh is something that always has to be new,” says Dapper Dan, “and always has to be potent.” He should know. The avatar of hip hop style got his start in Harlem of the 1970s designing custom “knock-ups” (as opposed to knock offs) for a who’s who of big ballers and shot callers, as well as a few rappers. From Eric B & Rakim to Kool G Rap to The Fat Boys—even Mike Tyson—Dapper Dan dressed them all. But then, during the early 1990s certain major fashion brands ran him out of business. “I had to go underground,” says Dan, who has since made a groundbreaking deal with the House of Gucci, opening boutiques in Harlem and more recently in SoHo. “I was built to start all over anyway,” says Dan. “I was NOT going to let this get away from me…. I said ‘They ain’t gonna leave me out of this.’”
