Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Now.
Speaker 2: It's New York Fashion Week, the semi annual event when
Speaker 2: designers show their collections to the world so fast fashion
Speaker 2: brands can decide which styles to rip off. But unlike
Speaker 2: wet subway seats, fashion Week hasn't always been a New
Speaker 2: York institution. It's had a long walk down the runway
Speaker 2: to get where it is today. It all started in
Speaker 2: France in the sixteen hundreds, which might not surprise you,
Speaker 2: but back then Paris was very much not known for fashion.
Speaker 2: The French were about as stylish as a croc wearing
Speaker 2: a fanny pack. At that time, Madrid was actually the
Speaker 2: fashion capital of the world, and thanks to their tiny tapas,
Speaker 2: they could actually fit into all the sample sizes. But
Speaker 2: everything changed for France when Louis the fourteenth was, you know,
Speaker 2: King of Fid. Louis turned France into a major power,
Speaker 2: and he wanted the thread.
Speaker 3: To show it.
Speaker 2: For him, fashion was essential to the monarchy's prestige. I mean,
Speaker 2: no one wants to be executed by a guy wearing
Speaker 2: cargo shorts. Louis's obsession built up France's fashion and textile
Speaker 2: industry and soon turned Paris into the world center of fashion,
Speaker 2: which by default made it the world center of cocaine
Speaker 2: and bitchy gossip as well. It was under Louis that
Speaker 2: France established the idea of showing fall designs in the
Speaker 2: spring and spring designs in the fall. So you can
Speaker 2: thank him for that trendy coat you're wearing in August.
Speaker 4: Ooh, who new.
Speaker 2: Fauforurt was so hot. France continued to dominate the fashion
Speaker 2: industry for centuries until World War Two, when Paris was
Speaker 2: under German occupation. This grinded their fashion influence to a
Speaker 2: halt because A no one could come to Paris to shop,
Speaker 2: and b Coco Chanelle was too busy banging Nazis to
Speaker 2: make any clothes. I know, terrible right, But no matter
Speaker 2: how many times I remind them of this, the boutique
Speaker 2: still won't give me a discount on a classic flat.
Speaker 2: But Paris's defeat turned out to be a win for
Speaker 2: the American fashion industry. The US seized on the opportunity
Speaker 2: to fill that gap quicker than a forever twenty one
Speaker 2: dress falls apart in the laundry. In nineteen forty three,
Speaker 2: America held the first Fashion Week, or as it was
Speaker 2: known then press Week, started by a publicist Eleanor Lambert.
Speaker 2: It launched the careers of designers like Hattie Carnegie, Norman Morrel,
Speaker 2: and Claire mccardal, whose claim to fame was inventing sportswear.
Speaker 2: And by sportswear, I mean any casual clothing, not the
Speaker 2: athleisure that you wear even though your main exercise is
Speaker 2: getting a caramel frap in the Starbucks drive through three
Speaker 2: four I oh whoo.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 2: Standard is tough. Before press Week, magazines like Vogue and
Speaker 2: Harper's Bazaar were really all about European designers. They treated
Speaker 2: American designers the way they treated the Kardashians in twenty
Speaker 2: ten they ignored them. But once press Weeek started, they
Speaker 2: treated American fashion like, well, the Kardashians. Now, she said
Speaker 2: she'd eat poop to look good?
Speaker 6: Should I eat poop?
Speaker 2: New York Fashion Week became such an institution that fashion
Speaker 2: capitals like Paris, London and Milan soon added their own versions,
Speaker 2: and they continue pushing the fashion envelope to this day.
Speaker 2: You could only get away with severed heads in Milan.
Speaker 2: If that was on a New York runway, everyone would
Speaker 2: just assume it was another murder. As time passed, New
Speaker 2: York Fashion Week became home of so many seminal moments,
Speaker 2: like in the fifties when James Galano's popularized feminine glamour,
Speaker 2: or Adolfo, who gained fame in the sixties for his
Speaker 2: emphasis on accessories. And in the seventies, Norma Kamali introduced
Speaker 2: a sleeping bag coat, although if you just wear your
Speaker 2: kid's sleeping bag, it looks almost good. As styles changed,
Speaker 2: so did fashion week itself. In the seventies and eighties,
Speaker 2: it turned into a NonStop party. Shows were held at
Speaker 2: nightclubs and celebrities started attending. By the early two thousands,
Speaker 2: celebs had become a permanent mainstay. Sarah Jessica Parker, Paris Hilton.
Speaker 2: Everyone was there, and that Hollywood glamour is still present
Speaker 2: to this day.
Speaker 1: But what was Larry.
Speaker 2: David doing in the front row? He looked so miserable
Speaker 2: to be there. He should have been on the catwalk.
Speaker 2: Through the years, Fashion Week has had different homes in
Speaker 2: the city, from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, but the
Speaker 2: most important place it's moved to in recent years is
Speaker 2: the same place you get all your porn the internet
Speaker 2: shows started live streaming, and designers began inviting bloggers and
Speaker 2: influencers to events. This all democratized fashion and made it
Speaker 2: more accessible to the public. Or at least that's what
Speaker 2: I tell my therapist when we're working through my online
Speaker 2: shopping addiction. I'm broke. New York Fashion Week hasn't just
Speaker 2: reflected the changing technology, It's also held a mirror up
Speaker 2: to society. From designers responding to the Me Too movement
Speaker 2: to the ongoing fight for more racial diversity on the runway,
Speaker 2: New York's been the site of progress for trans models,
Speaker 2: disabled models, and body positivity, which is kind of the
Speaker 2: least the fashion industry could do after telling women not
Speaker 2: to eat for the last one hundred years. So now
Speaker 2: you know everything about New York Fashion Week and how
Speaker 2: it came to be and how it's changing for the better. Now,
Speaker 2: if you'll excuse me, I have some poop to eat.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 6: Today is the official s Thoughts of New York Fashion Week, or,
Speaker 6: as New York has called it, Thursday for more. Please
Speaker 6: welcome to the show, our newest daily show correspondent. Do'll
Speaker 6: say sloan everybody.
Speaker 7: Thanks Drev. Yes, it's fashion Week, And while we'll.
Speaker 3: See some new looks.
Speaker 7: Some things will never change. For example, we know at
Speaker 7: least one model will fail at her only job walking
Speaker 7: down the runway, and that some designers going to try
Speaker 7: to sell us clothes they fished out of a dumpster.
Speaker 7: But the thing MM that GA's the most attention every
Speaker 7: year is the cultural appropriation that never goes out of style.
Speaker 6: Well, do say, for people who don't know, can you
Speaker 6: explain what cultural appropriation is?
Speaker 7: Sure, it's when you take something that divines the culture
Speaker 7: that you're not a part of and profit off of it.
Speaker 7: The fashion industry does it all the time. They take
Speaker 7: from black culture, Native Americans, Asia, you name it. I
Speaker 7: mean the models even appropriate their body dimensions from the
Speaker 7: aliens and clothes encounters.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, But you'll say, to be fair, not all
Speaker 6: instances of cultural appropriation are that extreme.
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, that's true. Not every person who listens to
Speaker 7: rap or Where's a Kimono? Or sings the chorus to Desposito,
Speaker 7: it's trying to steal someone else's culture.
Speaker 6: Let's put you here because I love singing Desposito.
Speaker 7: Well, you can definitely sing it because you know you
Speaker 7: look like a Puerto Rican.
Speaker 3: Ohl.
Speaker 7: But sometimes across the line, like when you get movies
Speaker 7: about white boys saving jazz or Miley Cyrus.
Speaker 3: Twerkin' ugh hell.
Speaker 7: Cultural appropriation is the only thing Taylor and Katie can't
Speaker 7: agree on.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, But some people look at some of these
Speaker 6: examples and they sing, why the fuss.
Speaker 7: Because, Trevor is when white people discover something that used
Speaker 7: to be considered ghetto.
Speaker 3: For example, look at big butts. I always try to
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 7: Big butts used to be considered undesired, but since the
Speaker 7: Kardashians bought all of theirs, now everybody wants one. Ooh,
Speaker 7: and don't get me started on dreadlocks. When black people
Speaker 7: have them, they're discriminated against, they even get fired over it.
Speaker 7: But when white people have them, clothes fly off the racks.
Speaker 7: Look at this, this is a fashion shower.
Speaker 3: She a avatar? Wait, go back? Was that Kendall Jenna?
Speaker 7: Baby, It's always Kendle Jenna.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, you know what they'll say, I'm gonna I'm gonna lie.
Speaker 3: I hear you.
Speaker 6: And this is interesting because for me, it's weird. Where
Speaker 6: I come from, cultural appropriation isn't really a big deal,
Speaker 6: right My My family's always trying to get my white
Speaker 6: friends to wear African clothes. They don't view it as
Speaker 6: white people trying to steal our culture. They think they're
Speaker 6: embracing it.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 7: And that's the attitude they got my ancestors over here.
Speaker 7: These white men are trying to steal us, they're embracing us.
Speaker 3: Come on, go get on this boat. Okay, no, no,
Speaker 3: but the way. But it's not just Africa. When Beyonce
Speaker 3: did that video where she.
Speaker 6: Dressed up like an Indian goddess, right, people here were upset,
Speaker 6: but in India a lot of people loved it.
Speaker 7: Okay, not travl Beyonce is a bad example because she's
Speaker 7: a lotteral goddess. Come on, forget culture. Beyonce is so
Speaker 7: my identity. I wouldn't even press charges. I'd be like,
Speaker 7: thank you, this is a honor. Look, Trevor, this is
Speaker 7: about equality. If minorities were equal, they wouldn't worry about
Speaker 7: people taking their culture because that wouldn't be all they have. Look,
Speaker 7: white people, if you're gonna appropriate take everything, take the
Speaker 7: good and the bad.
Speaker 3: You can take my struggle to get pulled.
Speaker 7: Over for no reason, get followed through a store and
Speaker 7: the next time there's a Black Lives Matter march. I
Speaker 7: want to see you there, kindle, but don't worry about
Speaker 7: bringing that pepsi. Girl, We drink spry, ju say slow
Speaker 7: and everybody.
Speaker 1: Huh. Welcome to c P Time, the only show that's
Speaker 1: for the culture. Today, we'll be discussing black contributions to fashion. Normally,
Speaker 1: when we think about black fashion, we think about church
Speaker 1: hats so big they block your view of Jesus. Or
Speaker 1: we think about those soups that Steve Harvey wears had
Speaker 1: haul all the buttons, leave some buttons for the rest
Speaker 1: of us. Steve, they'd keep them my clothes together with staples.
Speaker 1: But in actuality, the world of fashion has been filled
Speaker 1: with influential and iconic African American designers, like our first trailblazer,
Speaker 1: Zelda Wynn Valdez, who was one of the first designers
Speaker 1: whose clothing accentuated women's curves. Before her, women's fashion covered
Speaker 1: up their figures with big ass skirts the size of
Speaker 1: a carnival cruise ship. Women would get lost just bending
Speaker 1: over to tie the shoes. Zelda's curve flowing designs were
Speaker 1: so popular that Hugh Hefferner asked her to design the
Speaker 1: iconic outfit for the Playboy Bunnies. I never went to
Speaker 1: the Playboy Mansion myself because I was married, and I
Speaker 1: also have a severe phobia of rabbits. I never know
Speaker 1: where rabbits are hiding, and if you can pull one
Speaker 1: out of a hat, you can pull one out of anywhere.
Speaker 1: Here's my ass. I don't want to be around that.
Speaker 1: Another black creator of coteur is Stephen Burrows. He rose
Speaker 1: to fashion prominence in the early seventies during the disco era.
Speaker 1: I was always confused by disco. I couldn't tell who
Speaker 1: was dancing and who was giving me directions. But disco
Speaker 1: isn't just about the moves, It's about the fashion, which
Speaker 1: Stephen Burrows helped shape. He hung out at Studio fifty
Speaker 1: four and was popular among its celebrity regulars. He was
Speaker 1: the first to design clothes that were comfortable on the
Speaker 1: dance floor, even at three am, right when the cocaine
Speaker 1: hit so hard you thought you were the disco ball.
Speaker 1: Cocaine was better in the seventies. Burrows also invented lettucing,
Speaker 1: which is when you make the material at the edge
Speaker 1: of a garment curve and ripple like a piece of Lettuce.
Speaker 1: I'll have to take his word for it, because I've
Speaker 1: never eaten a piece of letters. My favorite vegetable is
Speaker 1: caramel covered popcorn. And finally, our last designer brings us
Speaker 1: to the modern day. Virgil Ablow the first African American
Speaker 1: artistic director at Louis Vauton and driving force behind this
Speaker 1: decade streetwear movement. He made high end fashion take streetwear seriously.
Speaker 1: You know, fancy logos, T shirts, chunky sneakers, hoodies, pretty
Speaker 1: much anything you're not supposed to wear to a funeral
Speaker 1: unless you're in the deceased had beef rist in peacepencer.
Speaker 1: Miss Jordans is stepping on your grave. Now, don't be
Speaker 1: fooled by the term streetwear. One of Ablow's biggest companies,
Speaker 1: Off White, sells sweatpants for over three hundred dollars, and
Speaker 1: this luxury undershirt costs two hundred. Although I don't know
Speaker 1: why you would spend so much money on a shirt
Speaker 1: that ain't nobody gonna see. You know how much I
Speaker 1: paid for my underwear? Nothing. A six pack of drawers
Speaker 1: fell off the back of a Walmart truck in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, and I never looked back. So the next
Speaker 1: time you zip your fly and you're looking fly, remember
Speaker 1: the African American fashion trail blazers who made you that blazer. Now,
Speaker 1: if you'd excuse me, I'm gonna make my first shirt
Speaker 1: retail price ten thousand dollars. This old man has his debts,
Speaker 1: but that's all the time we have for today. I'm
Speaker 1: Royd with Junie. This has been CPE time. And remember
Speaker 1: for the culture. Gave me some damn Somebody give me
Speaker 1: a napkin. I'm bleeding on my fabric.
Speaker 6: My guest tonight is a fashion icon who pioneered high
Speaker 6: end street where catering to gangsters, athletes, and musicians. His
Speaker 6: new memoir is called Dappa Dan, Made in Harlem.
Speaker 3: Please welcome Dapper Dan. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 6: I'm so excited to have you here because I remember
Speaker 6: the first time I heard your name was in a
Speaker 6: rap song. I remember rappers would rap about being laced
Speaker 6: up by Dappa Dan. You know, people would talk about
Speaker 6: these threads from Dapadan styles by Dappa Dan. It was
Speaker 6: an idea and it was a myth.
Speaker 3: And now when.
Speaker 6: People see you today, they go the suits, they see
Speaker 6: you dressing people at the met gala. They think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: this man's a fashion designer. But you didn't start in
Speaker 6: the most normal place. You started making something out of
Speaker 6: nothing as a hustler.
Speaker 8: Yes, exactly. I started with nothing. I was like you
Speaker 8: probably say, you was born in crime. I was born
Speaker 8: in crime. Wow right, yeah, And so I had to
Speaker 8: I had to adjust to life. So I used the
Speaker 8: tools that was available to me. When I wanted to
Speaker 8: open up a store, nobody would sell to me. So
Speaker 8: I said, you know what, I'm gonna figureut how to
Speaker 8: do this myself. I'm gonna learn how to make fabric
Speaker 8: and do everything that the big boys do and do
Speaker 8: better than they do it.
Speaker 3: You really, yeah, I mean you really.
Speaker 6: You really did something that I don't think anybody thinks
Speaker 6: is possible. I don't think anyone has achieved in the
Speaker 6: same way that you've done it. For those who don't know,
Speaker 6: you know those like very fancy Fendy, you know outfits
Speaker 6: that you see, you know, all these designer clothes where
Speaker 6: you see like all the labels everywhere on it, like
Speaker 6: Louis Vuitton, Luviatan, Leviatan Leave's or Fendy, Fendy, Fandy Fendy, Fendy, Fanny, that.
Speaker 3: Was that was him.
Speaker 6: So a lot of people don't know this about Dapadam,
Speaker 6: but but you came along and you created like a
Speaker 6: street version of what these high end brands were creating.
Speaker 6: You made your own version of Gucci, your own version
Speaker 6: of Fendy, your own version of all of these brands,
Speaker 6: which became bigger than the brands for many black people.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know what I did. I what they call
Speaker 8: me is the father of logo media. I looked at
Speaker 8: the brand, I looked at them. I'll say, Wow, everybody's
Speaker 8: excited about the logo, but Gucci is not making jackets.
Speaker 8: Findy is not making jackets.
Speaker 3: One of these guys.
Speaker 8: Are making jackets in office. I said, wow, Well, if
Speaker 8: they're excited with the bag, imagine if I could make
Speaker 8: them look like the luggage.
Speaker 6: You have now gotten to a place where you're no
Speaker 6: longer seen as an outsider, but rather a trendsetter. You
Speaker 6: work with these fashion houses. They've teamed up with you.
Speaker 6: For instance, you work with Gucci now where they Saidabadam,
Speaker 6: we want to.
Speaker 3: Create with you.
Speaker 6: In fact, you were part of the conversation when Gucci
Speaker 6: had that incident where they came out with those designs
Speaker 6: where people there was backlash on social media.
Speaker 3: Yes, why did you team up with them? Why did you?
Speaker 3: Why did you work with Gucci?
Speaker 6: And many?
Speaker 3: Well, you know what I did.
Speaker 5: I did a lot of research even before I got
Speaker 5: into the partnership, and I researched like Alexandro the lead designer,
Speaker 5: and I researched Marco the CEO.
Speaker 8: And I know these men were genuine. So I said,
Speaker 8: what happened? I said, well, y'all, I don't know what happened.
Speaker 8: You know, if you shoot a guy by accident, you
Speaker 8: shoot want purpose, he's dead. So I told him you
Speaker 8: have to come, you have to come to Harlem, and
Speaker 8: we got to fix this. You got to explain to
Speaker 8: people what they did. And they came, you know, And
Speaker 8: so now we have to change, make a program whereby
Speaker 8: Gucci's gonna be putting money into different programs. We're gonna
Speaker 8: have inclusivity. We got vice presidents now in a popolo
Speaker 8: and so it's a big program. It's the change makes
Speaker 8: the program. So we're gonna make a change. And actually
Speaker 8: what we're starting here with Gucci, we need to move
Speaker 8: that on to other brands.
Speaker 6: What do you think you want to see changing the
Speaker 6: future in fashion now that Dappa Dan has a name
Speaker 6: and clouts.
Speaker 8: What I really would like to see is that you know,
Speaker 8: culture is what moves fashion, and you know this hip
Speaker 8: hop culture went global, right, So if the culture can
Speaker 8: go global, why can't the representatives of the culture go
Speaker 8: global as well?
Speaker 1: So that's what I advocate for. I advocate for.
Speaker 8: More people who make a contribution to the culture that
Speaker 8: enables these brands to make money, to be inclusive today.
Speaker 3: Right, make that money. It's an exciting book, an amazing life.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 4: Explore more shows from The Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 4: searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch
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Speaker 3: This has been a Comedy Central podcast