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Iconic Fashion Designer Dapper Dan Debuts Memoir at BAM

The legendary designer will discuss his highly anticipated autobiography and its larger cultural and historical context.
Dapper Dan, BK Reader
Photo credit: Renell Medrano, courtesy BAM

Iconic fashion designer Dapper Dan will be debuting his memoir "Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem," on Wednesday, July 10 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Joined by former Teen Vogue editor-in-chief and Project Runway judge Elaine Welteroth, the designer will discuss his highly anticipated autobiography and its larger cultural and historical context. 

"Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem" is a candid chronicle the legendary designer's creativity and industry-changing hustle, as well as a historical record of Harlem's evolution from the perspective of the man who was on the ground floor for it all.

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. The self-taught tailor dressed cultural icons like 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. 

Before he reinvented haute couture, Dapper Dan, born Daniel Day, 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. Today, Dapper Dan has emerged as a world-famous designer who broke racial and economic barriers to outfit some of the biggest names in music, sports and culture in looks that went on to define an era.

Dapper Dan has had his work displayed at the Smithsonian Institution, Museum at FIT, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the City of New York and London's Design Museum. His eponymous boutique was open from 1982 to 1992 and reopened in 2017 in a major partnership with Gucci, for which he also served as the face of their fall campaign.

Iconic fashion designer Dapper Dan will be debuting his memoir 
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

By turns playful, poignant, thrilling and inspiring, "Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem" is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than 70 years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change.

Dapper Dan in conversation with Elaine Welteroth

When: Wednesday, July 10 | 7:00pm

Where: BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

How much: $20 (event only); $40 (with book) |Limited tickets are still available; for more information, go here.




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