Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

A Memoir

    • 4.7 • 122 Ratings
    • $14.99
    • $14.99

Publisher Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma13th, and A Wrinkle in Time

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

With his now-legendary 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. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time.

Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into  a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z.

By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change.

Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

“Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef

“What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2019
July 9
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
304
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
30.7
MB

Customer Reviews

Butter brown 1 ,

Great Read

This autobiography Dapper Dan was an excellent read. I was so surprised and inspired by the trial and tribulations this man went through and turned it around in the end!!

Hailei Wang ,

A role model of a man, a father, an artist and a fighter

When I opened this book, the inspiration or tricks from a fashion designer’s successful journey was what I was looking for. Closing it, I’m touched with a way of surviving and fighting, a way of treating human beings and the world, and a way of making peace with myself.

the901show ,

His book it’s like a time machine.

This man is walking museum full of game, and has a keen since of fashion. What I picked up from this man is the principles that never died nor did he comprise. All race and age that can read need to reads this platinum jewelry see through his eyes. What the world was through the beginning, middle and still rising stages of hip hop.

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