Jalen Rose talks style and fashion with Dapper Dan
nypost.comDapper Dan. He’s dressed everyone from Rakim to Salt-N-Pepa to Jay-Z in his designs, which he spun using logos from fashion houses such as Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton and sold out of his Harlem boutique.
But while he emerged in the hip-hop era, his own story started in a more idyllic Harlem.“Growing up in the ’50s, I saw Harlem the way it will never be seen again.
I’m the last generation that saw Harlem before a drug epidemic. I saw Harlem when everybody left their doors open, when there was no mugging and mistreatment of older people … I never lost one friend to gang violence.”Dap, who also wrote “Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem — A Memoir,” remembered the whole neighborhood emptying into churches on Sunday mornings. “That didn’t change until the ’60s, the first drug epidemic.
So I’m thankful for that early experience. It taught me who we really are, you know, and it saddens me that young people never knew the Harlem that I knew.”He talked about how his father’s incredible work ethic rubbed off on him.
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