Hip Hop at 50: Harlem Designer Dapper Dan on becoming a Gucci God (part 3)

Encore! © FRANCE 24

Hip Hop revolutionised music but as you’ll discover in part 3 of our series – it also changed fashion forever. Hip Hop and fashion have been linked ever since the music started at the block parties in the Bronx in the 70s. As a voice for the marginalised, Hip Hop’s look mattered as much as its sound, partly as an expression of self-identity, partly as shorthand for success. In this episode we visit Harlem to meet the man who went from a fashion industry pariah for his head-to-toe designs that ripped off high end fashion labels to a Gucci god. Dapper Dan single handedly brought high fashion to the hood and helped put street fashion on catwalks around the world.