![]() ![]() But it also served him well in another place, outside on the streets. ![]() And so I read my way through everything in everything and out of everything.ĪLEX BLUMBERG: Dan’s love of reading served him well in school. Anything that I wanted to be that could free me up from the situation that I'm in was through the power of reading. He say, "Boy, you could read." Do you know what that means do you know how powerful that is? You know? He understood the power of information. And I told my father, "This is gonna cost you two and a half times," right? And my father said, "Boy, don't you know you can read." And tears welled up in his eyes. And the expression on his face, I could see it every day like it happened yesterday. I never forget that suit, right? So we go to Ripley's, and he's gonna buy it on credit, right? So I look at the contract that my father had and I said, "Daddy, they gonna charge you two and a half times what this suit cost." I had just learned how - I was in eighth grade, going into the eighth grade, learned the mathematical calculations for interest. It was gonna be an Easter suit. It was charcoal brown with gray pinstripes. ĪLEX BLUMBERG: What was - what was the suit for?ĭAPPER DAN: The suit was for Easter. His father only had a third grade education, couldn’t really read, and worked three jobs to make ends meet.ĭAPPER DAN: Let me tell you something… one of the turning points in my life was when my father was gonna buy me a suit from Ripley's Department Store. And just a quick warning before we get started, there is some swearing in this episode.ĭan was born in Harlem in 1944, grew up poor, one of seven children. Dan’s story also charts that epic course. A neighborhood that was seen as the hub of black culture in New York City, then fell on hard times, weathered the crack epidemic, and is now going through another transformation, a messy blend of economic development, and gentrification. ![]() From street hustler to someone regularly name checked in rap songs by Jay-Z, Fat Joe, Missy Elliot and many others.Īnd one of the many things that struck me during the conversation, was how Dan’s story serves almost as an allegory for the fate of the neighborhood he’s called home his entire life: Harlem. I talked to Dan about his transformation from a fashion outlaw, to a Gucci insider. Back then he worked on the fringes of the fashion world - in fact, for a while, he was the go-to stylist for many of New York City’s most notorious gangsters.īut his early career came to a halt, when the world of high fashion, the world he now calls home, came after him, and put him out of business. And that boldly patterned shirt he’s wearing - he designed it, in partnership with the high-end fashion label Gucci.Īnd the fact that he is now, at age 75, working with a luxury fashion house like Gucci is something that probably no one would have predicted three decades ago when he was in the early stages of his fashion career. Tools of the trade.ĪLEX BLUMBERG: My guest today on the show goes by the name Dapper Dan. ĪLEX BLUMBERG: Is that a Dapper Dan original that you're wearing right now?ĭAPPER DAN: Tools of the trade. But my guest today showed up in an outfit that was, frankly, a tragedy to have wasted on a podcast: a floral patterned silk shirt, checkered pants, a belt buckle in the shape of a dragon’s head, and to top it off, a pair of oversized snakeskin sunglasses.ĭAPPER DAN: 'Cause I was coming to Brooklyn I wanted to be fancy.ĪLEX BLUMBERG: You are fancy. Now, when my guests normally join me for interviews at the Gimlet studios here in Brooklyn, they usually don’t have to worry that much about their outfits. ALEX BLUMBERG: From Gimlet, I’m Alex Blumberg and this is Without Fail, the show where I talk with artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, visionaries of all kinds, about their successes and their failures, and what they’ve learned from both. ![]()
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