It’s been over two decades since Dapper Dan‘s iconic 24-hour Harlem boutique closed in 1992, no thanks to a lawsuit brought by Fendi and a storefront street fight provoked by Mike Tyson. Though its namesake designer’s incredible impact on fashion is at an all-time high in 2017, when bootleg Gucci is hyped by everyone from Bushwick art kids to, Well, Gucci. Since Alessandro Michele’s controversial “tribute” to Harlem’s hip-hop tailor hit the runway in May, there have been rumors and prayers that Dapper Dan — real name Daniel Day — would soon make a full return to fashion.
Those wishes have now been granted. Business of Fashion reports that Day will mentor young designers as part of VFILES’s crowd-sourced New York Fashion Week show in September. Past VFILES mentors include catwalk queen Naomi Campbell, Rihanna’s stylist Mel Ottenberg, makeup legend Pat McGrath, and of course, everyone’s favorite post-gender ATLien Young Thug. The Japanese-influenced, meme-spawning dress Thugger wore on his JEFFERY mixtape cover last year was designed by one of his VFILES protégés, Italian designer Alessandro Trincone. Hopefully Day will be taking an equally front-seat approach to his mentor role.
Day probably deserves a lot of credit for fashion’s embrace of rappers in the first place.”I Africanized it,” Dan told The New Yorker in 2013 of his souped-up glitzy Gucci tracksuits and oversized Louis Vuitton puffers. “Took it away from that, like, Madison Avenue look.” His VFILES mission sounds similar to that of Young Thug. “One of the biggest things about street style now is that there is a lot of gender fluidity,” Day said in a statement. “People are taking more risks, especially with color choices and silhouettes… I like that, I like that whole scene and what’s taking place right now — the way it’s emerging, the way it’s developing. My mission with fashion is to help take it there!”
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Text Hannah Ongley
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