Gucci launches Dapper Dan collection

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jul 18, 2018

Italian luxury label Gucci announced the global launch of its first 80s hip hop-inspired apparel and accessories collaboration with iconic Harlem tailor Dapper Dan on Tuesday.

 
The collection aims to channel the aesthetic that made Dapper Dan famous, drawing on the tailor’s archives to create “Guccified” versions of his tracksuits and jackets in signature Gucci fabrics. Other pieces include denim featuring cuts reminiscent of the 80s and early 90s, jacquard sweatshirts and sneakers.
 
Accessories in the collection range from oversized Swarovski crystal-incrusted sunglasses and heavy gold chains with medallions depicting bearded Greek gods and lions, to backpacks and baseball caps.

Gucci logos are omnipresent, as is other imagery referencing the Italian luxury house, such as the brand’s green and red stripes, and embroidered dragons. The collection also debuts a new yellow Gucci logo inspired by the signage of Dapper Dan’s original store and incorporates the latin motto of the United States “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”) into a number of pieces, as this was the phrase used by Dan when asked by Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele to sum up the spirit of the collaboration.
 
Working out of his store on Harlem’s 125th Street in the 80s and 90s, Dapper Dan (born Daniel Day) created bespoke clothing for everyone from hip-hop stars such as LL Cool J and Salt-N-Pepa to sportsmen including Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
 
The tailor’s history with Gucci is long and rocky, as he went from being sued for applying knock-off Gucci logos to his bespoke creations in his heyday to seeing the brand seemingly copy one of his own designs in its Cruise 2018 collection, a piece which Alessandro Michele has since claimed was intended as an homage to Dapper Dan.
 
The relationship between the Italian fashion house and the Harlem tailor has since smoothed out into an ongoing collaboration which has seen Gucci help Dapper Dan reopen his iconic atelier on Lenox Avenue.
 
As part of the launch of the Gucci x Dapper Dan collection, photographer Ari Marcopoulos shot a lookbook in Harlem, snapping both models and locals, and drawing inspiration from archive images from the 80s showing Dapper Dan made-to-measure pieces.
 
The Gucci x Dapper Dan apparel and accessories collection is available in selected Gucci stores worldwide, as well as online via the brand’s e-commerce site.