Hi everyone, welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. Today's episode is hosted by A6 and Z co-founder Ben Horowitz, interviewing special guest, Dapper Dan.

Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the early 1980s, remixing luxury brand logos into his own designs for gangsters, athletes, and musicians, dressing cultural icons from Eric B. and Rakeem to

J. Z. He went on to define an era, and his work has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of

Modern Art, the Met, the Smithsonian, and more. But Daniel R. Day, aka Dapper Dan, began as a hungry,

fast learner in Harlem, who became a gambler, spent a brief stint in a foreign jail where he nourished himself with reading, and then studied the market to build his business, rising to the top, falling to the bottom, and rising again, reinventing himself over and over. The conversation is based on an event that we hosted for the launch of his memoir,

made in Harlem, where throughout, Dapper Dan shares inspiration for all kinds of makers,

from the struggle, especially when not given the privileges and opportunities that others have,

to the power of studying the game and the power of listening to your customers, but not in a

typical way. To what cultural influence and leadership really means, especially because, quote,

you cannot be in it and not be of it.

It is a story of the OG hustler and spans 70 years, with the first 30 minutes of this episode

focused on his growing up in Harlem, visiting Africa, and cultural

influences at the time, and then 30 minutes in going into his trendsetting in fashion, including

the concepts of logomania and later influencer marketing. And finally, the story ends where

it begins, with reopening his boutique and his partnership with Gucci, which involved

the power of voice, including that of Black Twitter.

So I'd like to thank everybody for coming out, and this is probably one of the most difficult

introductions that I've ever had to do, because how do I explain Dapper Dan?

That's like almost impossible. And, you know, I didn't know who dapper Dan was really, I knew dapper Dan, but I didn't know until I read the book.

Dapper Dan made in Harlem.

And so I thought to introduce him, there were a couple of things that were sent to me leading up to the event that were like right on point.

We put like a tweet out,

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