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 Selma 13th and A Wrinkle in Time NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
VANITY FAIR 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
