we had a store on crenshaw boulevard. some entrepreneurs decided to come into our store and rob our store at gun point, took everything we had. at that point, we had a choice to either stay out here or go back to new york. one day we went to the palladium and of course it was the middle of a fashion show and i saw carl jones. i asked him, you know, carl, how do i get my stuff in department stores? i wrant to get my brand out there. he s like, if you come to my office tomorrow, i ll be more than happy to talk to you. i came to his office. within the first 15 minutes he was like, i heard about your stuff. if you need some help, i d be willing to help you out. two weeks later we had a deal, and he invited me to become partners with him in the business. he was very selective in who he gave his clothes to. he gave them to the biggy malls, tupaks, more sophisticated guys. cross colours was tlc, snoop dogg and things of that nature. we sort of made sure they had a
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business who realized that there was something going on. because he would come to new york all the time and go on the subway and visit spike lee s store in brooklyn. he was seeing how young men were wearing their clothes. i was doing business with a store called merry-go-round enterprises. i started talking to the buyers there about who their customers were, who they sold to. it was mainly what the stores referred to as an urban customer. but, for me, it was the african-american customer. i rode the subways in new york because at the time i felt rap music was coming from new york, and that was a definite lifestyle culture at that time. they were wearing like jeans that were four or five sizes too big. i go, oh, that s interesting. they re using a belt to hold
that we were used to seeing on lifestyles of the rich and famous. now we re seeing brands that we can relate to. so there was a number of things that kind of catapulted this look to become mainstream. the music came and put a light on us. where we been dressing in the hood, but without hip-hop there was no light looking in the hood to see what you got on. you know what i m saying? nobody was, like, yo, what these folks in the hood, nobody cared about that. they only care birthday thd abo it burst the street culture. the first time we started seeing that urban really had some dollars behind it was through cross colors. here was a brand that was actually started in california by a black fashion executive who actually came out of the surf
it down here. all they had to do is pull rappers come through, all they do is pull the gate up and rolling. my policy was, run to the gate! eric b., rock kim, biz marquee, salt and peppa, guy, teddy. teddy, i ain t mad at you. i still got a check for $700 that bounced. what put the nail in the coffin was first they raided me. raided me broke. part two was crank out anything i do on your mtv, and you know your mtv gave verse to the rap. that was their cover. he should have came out with a dapper dan brand. he definitely could have. i think he would be in business. dapper dan was tom ford before tom ford. he should have been hired instead of shut down.