The days as a suburban mall staple are in the past for Gap. In the past few years, the brand has grown from logo hoodies, acid wash denim, and shorts that scream, “dad on the grill” and has now found itself at the cool kids’ table. Kanye West (or Ye, as he now goes by) signed a 10-year deal with the brand in 2020 kicking off the partnership with a round puffer jacket that sold out instantly. Then earlier this year, West brought onboard his longtime collaborator and friend Demna of Balenciaga to create Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga. Now proving they can not only sit with the cool kids but also play the game, the brand has partnered with Harlem fashion legend Dapper Dan.
If you’re not familiar with Daniel Day (better known as Dapper Dan), he’s an old-school tailor who began using luxury textiles from heritage fashion houses to create individualized logomania garments. Once the big brands caught whim of what Dapper Dan was up to, after dressing some of the biggest names in hip-hop, including Sean Combs, LL Cool J, Eric B. & Rakim, and Missy Elliot as clients, he was hit with several lawsuits closing down his business. In 2018, he bounded back after Gucci, inspired by one of his signature designs, embarked on what turned out to be a longtime partnership between the two.
As for his Gap campaign, the American fashion trailblazer is applying his signature “knockup” style (instead of knockoff) to the Gap brand with a salmon-colored hoodie that spells out “DAP” in the famous Gap logo lettering. It marks the first time Gap has ever put another name on its iconic logo, so naturally, Dan starred in the campaign himself wearing the “DAP” hoodie. The sweatshirt hit stores on March 10 for $99, only a little more than the average price of the Gap arch-logo hoodie.
Much like West, and Demna for Balenciaga, Dapper Dan’s reason for partnering with Gap is to get his work into the hands of as many people of all backgrounds as possible. That being said, there’s no surprise the collaboration sold out in minutes. With resellers and hypebeast eyeing the collaboration, we expected nothing less. While you scour the internet for the limited-edition hoodie resell, check out other pieces from the sought-after campaign available to shop now.
