GUCCI x
Dapper Dan
Independent atelier Dapper Dan had a long and complicated history with luxury fashion house Gucci dating back to the late 1980s. Enter Translation.
THE CHALLENGE
Harlem-based atelier Dapper Dan had a long and complicated history with luxury fashion house Gucci dating back to the late 1980s. When the fashion house found itself “borrowing” inspiration from Dan’s designs decades later – without any credit or acknowledgement – the outcry from the community was loud: they wanted Dan to get his just due.
THE IDEA
Gucci aimed to provide Dan with proper credit and acknowledgement for his work, but what they needed were tools to shift the conversational momentum and to prime the public for a resolution and commitment to partnership.
THE WORK
Moving quickly to keep up with the ongoing conversation, we deployed expertly placed OOH and a quick-turn print campaign aligning Gucci with Dan and priming the public for collaboration. The campaign led up to a joint revival of the designer’s renowned Harlem atelier and the launch of a one-of-a-kind capsule collection featuring exclusive luxury patterns and fabrics from Gucci.
THE IMPACT
At launch, the original outrage gave way to near universal advocacy.
