- 2 days ago
Making a statement through fashion is nothing new, but how can today’s fashion creatives take advantage of the current market to truly stand out? In this insightful conversation, our panelists ASAP Ferg and Dapper Dan, alongside ESSENCE CEO & President Caroline Wanga, will break down what it takes to turn a design into a viral, trending moment that everyone is talking about—without compromising your brand’s integrity. Gain insider knowledge on how to navigate the fine line between creating buzz and staying true to your brand’s core values in an ever-evolving industry.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00It's me again.
00:04You guys, give it up for Donye Taylor because she dropped some absolute gems.
00:11I started in this business when we were doing film, not digital, when we had MySpace and I had a sidekick.
00:19So, we need people like her to teach us the things that we need to understand with this hyper-connectivity
00:27and the beauty and the fashion that we are seeing across the board when it comes to our social platforms.
00:33And learning the little bitty tricks are the thing.
00:36So, thank you, thank you.
00:37I learned so much from her.
00:40That was an amazing conversation.
00:42And you guys have been an amazing audience today.
00:45Obviously, we didn't...
00:46I love you more.
00:51Well, we didn't anticipate such an amazing turnout.
00:54So, some people are in the back standing.
00:57You are still here.
00:58You are still vibing with us.
01:00The frequency is high.
01:01So, I want to thank you, audience.
01:03Live streaming, the ones that are at home, the ones that are physically here, all the fashions that I see,
01:09all the artists in the room, the content curators, all of those things.
01:14Thank you, thank you, thank you.
01:16We also have to thank our sponsors.
01:18Like, growing a family, like anything you do, like growing a business, it takes a village.
01:23It takes supporters.
01:24And so, I have to take this moment to say thank you so much to this year's Essence Fashion House partners,
01:32Diet Coke.
01:34That's a big deal.
01:35Yeah.
01:35Diet Coke.
01:36Give it up for them.
01:39McDonald's, black and positively golden change of fashion, and Smart Water.
01:45And I have to say thank you to Essence.
01:48My first cover of Essence was in 2005.
01:53It's been a long time.
01:54But they still play with your girl.
01:56So, thank you so much, Essence, for loving on me the way you do.
02:01I love you the way you love me.
02:03Now, y'all good out there?
02:05You so good?
02:06Because we have one more panel.
02:08Now, this is a panel I know everyone has been waiting for.
02:11This is the moment.
02:13We are getting close to the end, but we are not done yet.
02:16Up next, we are going to break down what it really, really takes to turn a design into a viral, trending moment that everyone is talking about without compromising your brand's integrity.
02:30So, to kickstart that conversation, we have Essence Ventures President and CEO, Caroline Wonga, and Head of Social, Corey Jarvis, along with Ferg.
02:45Come on, baby.
02:46Yes.
02:49Carolina Wonga.
02:56You don't need this outfit anymore.
02:58You can give it to me.
02:59The Cowery in everything.
03:01Hello, hello.
03:03Hello, hello.
03:05And I believe there is the one, the only, the legendary.
03:09He's not a myth.
03:10He's a loving legend.
03:11Where is my Dapper Dan?
03:18Yes.
03:27Everything.
03:28Okay.
03:30I'm sorry.
03:31I was just fanning out.
03:33Enjoy.
03:34We should all be fanning out.
03:35If y'all don't know who this is, you better Google it.
03:40If y'all don't understand why we're freaking out right now, Google it.
03:45You're in the presence of a legend.
03:47And it's not you that decides if he's a legend.
03:52Wow.
03:53Thank y'all.
03:53Y'all made me so.
03:55I don't know what y'all clapping for.
03:56I got to clap for y'all.
04:00That's what they call umble.
04:02Clapping for you.
04:04Caroline Wonga here from Essence Ventures along with Corey Jarvis.
04:07We're not going to spend a lot of time introducing this because the presence of the two people
04:12we have with us today is what you came to see and what you need to learn.
04:15I'm going to tell you up front, I expect you to take one thing you're going to do from what
04:18they each say today.
04:19Otherwise, you've wasted your time.
04:21All right.
04:22So today we're going to have a fantastic conversation.
04:26I am going to have Corey Jarvis introduce one of our panelists.
04:30Then I will introduce the legend and we will ask our first question and they will enlighten
04:35us all with the way in which they impact the world.
04:37Corey Jarvis, do your thing.
04:39All right.
04:39So we're going to start off with no other than Ferg, who also is a founding member of Harlem's
04:45ASAP Mob.
04:46Ferg was initially the group's main clothing designer.
04:48Yeah, give it up for him.
04:49Give it up.
04:51Absolutely.
04:53All right.
04:54So Ferg was initially.
04:55Are they taking members?
04:56No.
04:56Oh, I can't get in.
04:59Am I talking to you?
05:01No.
05:02Okay.
05:02Got it.
05:02All right.
05:03So Ferg was initially the group's main clothing designer, but after teaming with Mob, a member
05:08of ASAP Rocky, he became one of the crew's back breakout rappers.
05:12Ferg also channeled his uniqueness into success, hitting the top 10 charts with proper studio albums.
05:17Trap Lord.
05:19Give it up for Trap Lord.
05:20Yeah.
05:21And always strive and prosper.
05:23Then in 2020, his single off of his single off of floor seats to move your hips, hit the
05:30top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
05:32Ferg is a truly unique and most faceted artist.
05:35Y'all give it up for Ferg.
05:36Now, ladies and gentlemen, you something when don't nobody know your last name, but they
05:45know what you've done in the world.
05:47Ladies and gentlemen, there is a name that if you don't know, you should be ashamed.
05:52Absolutely.
05:53Because we talk about the people that have gotten us to where we are, but we don't always understand who they were.
05:59So ladies and gentlemen, sitting in front of us today is an author, a global fashion icon with a remarkable story of taking culture to places that didn't think it could go until he took it there.
06:15Dapper Dan pioneered streetwear in the early 1980s.
06:21If you don't know what that is, it was before you were born.
06:23Dapper Dan first drew powerful New York City hustlers as clientele who flocked to him thanks to his strong street reputation as a legendary professional gambler.
06:50He then went on to outfit the world's top entertainer celebrity, all leading to his notoriety, but here's what Caroline's going to add.
06:58And every single one of them luxury brands that was looking at him funny is using him now.
07:02Right now.
07:03Am I lying, sir?
07:04No, you're telling the truth on that one.
07:06Come on.
07:07So we're going to start by giving an opportunity for the Dapper Dan to talk about what I believe is what we choose to wear when we feel our best is our armor for the purpose we're supposed to deliver in the world.
07:20When I'm wearing what I like, I have capacity to change the world.
07:24When I'm wearing what I don't like, I have less capacity because I'm worried about how I look.
07:28Dapper Dan, you have had a storied career that has demonstrated monumental change, not just in black culture, but in culture total.
07:37What does the way that you choose to dress or dress others have to do with how you fulfill your purpose in the world?
07:45If you are not taking notes, start now.
07:47Right now.
07:48Well, when it comes to my dressing, I dress for the mission.
07:52What I mean by that is like, depending where I'm going, if I have to do a Wall Street thing, then I do a Wall Street thing.
07:59And what I do, I embrace the culture.
08:02So I grew up in Harlem doing various musical genres, right?
08:07So when Calypso was hot, I had a Calypso look.
08:10You know, in Harlem, we have Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and I embrace all parts of the culture.
08:18So when I'm hanging out with my Dominican friends, I see how they dress.
08:21I want to impress them.
08:23So I look with that, I take that kind of look.
08:26And my Puerto Rican friends, like I go to La Marqueta on Saturday, they're a little more conservative.
08:33I dress like that.
08:34Wherever I'm going, I want to make an impression.
08:37And I want to make an impression by doing whatever they do, the best that they do it.
08:43Yeah.
08:43So people know that I'm diverse in how I create.
08:47Yeah.
08:47So wherever, wherever I'm at, Harlem is there.
08:53Hey.
08:54So before we go to the next question, I listened to you meet somebody backstage.
09:01And when you met her, you started to give her some guidance about how you should walk into a room or walk into a space.
09:10And you gave this very poignant note about giving yourself real estate in another person's head.
09:17Can you explain that?
09:18Because I thought it was sage advice.
09:20And I need to tell, all the young people need to do that.
09:23When they come up to me, the first thing, when a young person comes up to me and asks me a question, saying they want to be into fashion,
09:29the first thing I ask them is, what have you read?
09:32What have you found out before you came to me?
09:35And from that point, I could proceed to where I could take them.
09:39But I noticed that when I go to a lot of events, I'm most impressed by the young people on the sidelines.
09:46They say, Dapper Dan, I heard the thing on the Breakfast Club.
09:50Or Dapper Dan, I heard this thing.
09:52So the more information you have on a person that you want to emulate in your life, you should do homework on them.
10:00Even like I told them, you come here tonight.
10:02Whoever you are with, you tell them to point out who the important people are.
10:07And then you go right, y'all, bless now, you can go right to the phone and press and get information from them.
10:14You pick out a line and you go up to that person and say, wow, I was so impressed with what you did, so and so.
10:19And you make it short.
10:20But when a person like myself, who's an entertainer and important, you made a connection and therefore you have real estate in that person's mind as opposed to just running up to a person and you don't know anything about them.
10:33That's very important.
10:34You want to get, if you knew you want to get your information of who you are into their mind if you want to be like them.
10:42What I love is that real estate appreciates.
10:45So at the point that you get real estate in somebody's mind, it only grows from there.
10:49Sir, am I right?
10:50You're absolutely right.
10:52I thought I would be.
10:53Wherever I go, like clients come to me, I'll have a young guy clumping me.
10:57I don't know who all the rappers are, but I keep a young person on me.
11:01I say, who's that one?
11:02Who's this one?
11:02Who's that one?
11:03Can we get some silence in the back out of respect, please?
11:07Go ahead, sir.
11:12Yeah, so I'll make sure that I have some information.
11:14And when I'm dressing a rapper or whoever I'm dressing, I get all the information on them before they come so we can have a conversation.
11:22To me, the most important thing is to be able to communicate with whoever you're dressing to know something about them.
11:28That makes them more comfortable and gives a medium for them to understand you and for you to understand them.
11:35Love that.
11:35Love that.
11:36Let's take it back to Harlem.
11:37Harlem.
11:38Y'all here?
11:40I think we have two of Harlem's finest up here definitely today.
11:44So my question is to Ferg.
11:47There's not a lot of time.
11:47Hold on, Corey.
11:48If you need to have a conversation, please leave the room.
11:51We are trying to ensure that we're having a conversation about what we're here to do for Fashion House.
11:55Didn't want to have to do it, but gave a warning.
11:57Now I just got to say it.
11:58If it's that important, please step outside to speak and respect the panel.
12:01Go ahead.
12:03All right, all right, all right.
12:04Going back to Harlem.
12:07Okay, so I don't think a lot of times people really understand or give credit to black men and their presence in black men's life.
12:16So how did your father play a major role in your fashion and just your career?
12:21Well, my father is the first person that I paid attention to as far as clothes was concerned.
12:30Like, because I wasn't dressing like my mom.
12:33Not that it's a problem dressing like your mom, but, you know, my dad was like, fix your pants like this, wear your boots like this.
12:40And one of the main things that stuck out to me was my dad always got me things that all the other kids wasn't wearing.
12:52So I was like, oh, I have to be different.
12:55I have to be not different but myself.
12:58He taught me how to be myself.
12:59I was really being him because I didn't know how to be myself at that time.
13:02But, like, he taught me, like, oh.
13:05Like, it really just hit me as, like, a 35-year-old man that, like, oh, he was teaching me how to be innovative and different.
13:13So, like, for example, he brought me all the Jordans that all the kids had.
13:18I had the eights, the Bugs Bunny ears on them.
13:21Everybody know what that is.
13:22Yeah, the Jordan eights.
13:22Let's just check it.
13:23Exactly.
13:24So, yeah, I got those.
13:26I had, like, two pair of them, killed them, playing tag, manhunt.
13:30I'm a little kid.
13:32And then I went to a birthday party.
13:34He put me in a camouflage suit, all army fatigue, and he brought me some Air Raids, Nikes, black, white, and gray.
13:42And I was like, these is dope, but I want to wear my Jordans like the other kids.
13:48So, I've been sitting in a party mad tight, but not really realizing everybody's been coming up to me, giving me compliments, because I look different from everybody.
13:58And individual.
13:59Exactly.
13:59So, that's one of the main things he taught me when it came to clothes.
14:04And also, just how to be an elegant man.
14:08You know, he taught me about street wear, and he taught me how to wear my own clothes.
14:13He was like, yeah, you could buy all of this stuff.
14:15You know, he brought me Versace sweaters, and Vanson jackets, and all of this stuff you could think about.
14:22But it was nothing cooler than wearing Ferg apparel.
14:26Yeah.
14:27Give it up.
14:28Give it up for Black Lee.
14:28Yeah.
14:29So, Depp or Dan, some may know your story, some may not.
14:33But we've talked about where your origin story in Harlem is.
14:37And I just love the fact that all of these brands back then that you were working with now are trying to continue to get their fingers on you.
14:45In this day and age, you're in partnerships.
14:47Can you talk a little bit about that transition?
14:49Because it was a transition.
14:51You had a very different relationship with them in the beginning, and now you're such a critical part of how they're making money.
14:55How did that happen?
14:56And how did you feel about it?
14:57Well, I'm lucky.
14:58I think I attribute a lot of my success to my brothers and through watching them experience music in different levels of music, you know?
15:07Like, from jazz, R&B, hip-hop, rock, all of those different musical genres opened my eyes.
15:17But I think what opened my eyes the most was when my brothers and them was involved with jazz, I looked at who they looked up to and why they looked up to them and how those persons dressed.
15:27And this is how I figured out what I was going to do with the rappers, right?
15:32So my brother and them, like a group of jazz musicians, like called the Rat Pack, Sammy Davis Jr., Google it.
15:44Yeah, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, all those greats.
15:50And I noticed that they bought their clothes and wanted to dress like them.
15:56I said, oh, so this is where it started, right?
16:00Music is the other side of the coin to fashion.
16:04Ooh, say that again.
16:05Music is the other side of the coin to fashion.
16:08So I said, all the hip people want to dress like the musicians, and the gangsters want to dress like them as well, right?
16:14So I said, okay, I'll have to figure this out.
16:17When did this start?
16:17So I wanted to know exactly when did fashion and music come together.
16:24So I started studying the history of how that came about, and I went all the way back to the swing era when Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and them.
16:36And what was the first suits that they started to wear?
16:39What was the first thing that made the trend?
16:41And I said, oh, you know, in the old ballrooms in Harlem, they used to do – black people didn't have that much money, so they used to go to the pawn shop or the thrift shop and get these oversized suits.
16:52They'd take these oversized suits so when they go to the ballroom, they could dance and do flips with them, right?
16:57I said, oh, that's it.
16:58So a guy in Harlem got this idea.
17:01Why don't I just make them like that?
17:02So this guy in Harlem started making them like that, right?
17:06And that was the creation of the zoot suit.
17:09So now I'm following the history of the zoot suit.
17:13So the jazz musicians – now here's a new musical genre that's coming about.
17:17The jazz musicians got together, go to Cuba, and formulate this new musical genre called Afro-Cuban jazz, which is what we call salsa today.
17:27So when the jazz musicians go down to Cuba, the Cubans pick up the zoot suits, right?
17:32The Cubans take the zoot suits and go into Mexico.
17:36The Mexicans picked up the zoot suits and go into California, you know?
17:40And that's when all the Mexicans, what you call the pachucos, and they started – and then the Italians started wearing them.
17:48The Filipinos started wearing them and all of them.
17:50Now I say, oh, so this is how it's born.
17:52So that's when I learned the connection between fashion and music.
17:56So by the time hip-hop came along, I'm all ready for where they're ready to go.
18:00They didn't have no particular dress.
18:03They was trying to put things together.
18:05So I say, what does a hip-hop artist want to be?
18:08A hip-hop artist, you know, actually wants to be a gangster, you know?
18:13They take on gangster names, right?
18:17They bust up gangster's head, them big cars, the diamonds and everything.
18:22You know, I say, okay, so they want to be like a gangster.
18:24Listen, wait, wait, is this fax?
18:27Well, I don't want to be a gangster, but I understand what he's saying.
18:31No, I do.
18:32But I come from a real place with a real lineage that I can mimic, so I don't have to be a gangster.
18:41See, even – see, that's my nephew right there.
18:44But even if they don't want to be a gangster, it's the subliminal stuff that they attract to.
18:48When you got the diamonds, you got the cars, you got the money, you got the jewelry, all that's gangster paraphernalia.
18:54You know what I'm saying?
18:55There ain't nothing wrong with that, but it stems from gangster culture.
18:59So I looked at them.
19:01So the first rappers that came, they came with gangsters, you know?
19:06And they wanted to dress like gangsters.
19:07So, okay.
19:08But y'all have to wait out to the store.
19:10When the gangsters come out, then you can come in.
19:11And they would ask me, well, what do the gangsters wear?
19:15So I would dress them like the gangsters.
19:17And from that, I built on.
19:18But one thing was missing.
19:20I used to do luxury stuff, you know, with exotic skins, gators, crocodiles, minks, and things like that.
19:28But one day, the number one gangster in Harlem, Jack Jackson, came in.
19:32Jack Jackson's the guy who told on John Gotti's brother.
19:34He came in.
19:35He had this mean Mercedes Benz he used to park out front, all souped up.
19:39Whenever he came, everybody would crowd around the store.
19:43And he had a Louis Vuitton pouch full of $100 bills.
19:48So when he started taking them $100 bills out, everybody was looking at that pouch.
19:52And at that time, a lot of people wasn't even familiar with European brands.
19:56And they got excited about that pouch.
19:58I said, I'm making all this fancy stuff.
20:01I said, but that pouch ain't nothing but $5 worth of vinyl.
20:05Did y'all hear that?
20:07Then it occurred to me, I said, wait a minute.
20:10Wait a minute.
20:11I had already been studying religion and through religion, symbols.
20:15I said, it ain't really the pouch.
20:17It's the symbols.
20:18I said, if I can take them symbols and have everybody walking around looking like luggage, I can make more of that.
20:27Hashtag that.
20:28Looking like luggage.
20:29Than me straight as a gangster.
20:31I can make more of that than the alligators, the crocodiles, and the minks.
20:36So I taught myself textile printing.
20:39And I went to work.
20:40After I got through making shoes and jackets, I started doing furniture and cars.
20:46And that's how I took off.
20:50But the key to all of this is paying attention to the culture.
20:53Where does the culture want to go?
20:54I do not dictate fashion.
20:58I translate culture.
20:59So, Ferg, you are in the music genre as well as fashion.
21:07So what is your story about the connection to music to fashion?
21:10Well, I wanted to add that.
21:13I thought about his question.
21:14Yeah.
21:15Your question to Dap.
21:16And how he added that, like, fashion is inspired by, like, gangsters.
21:23When you think about it, because he's coming from a different era.
21:26Yeah.
21:26Of, like, when LL Cool J used to come to Harlem and want to be, like, the drug dealers and all of that stuff.
21:33Now kids that's coming up, they want to be, like, the rappers.
21:36But before the rappers, it was the drug dealers.
21:39So it was gangsters.
21:40But the reason why I say I don't think of myself dressing like a gangster, because I'm looking at my family members and, like, the guys that was in the streets, they might have been doing gangster things, but I didn't look at them like that.
21:55So, yes, I am inspired by gangster stuff.
22:00So, like, he was right when it came to that.
22:03But, like, now it transcended into something else.
22:06Just like how hip-hop transcended into something else.
22:09And, you know, now we could go to a Louis Vuitton fashion show and you got Dapper Dan-inspired, like, jackets and, you know, Gucci.
22:20He coming to Harlem to sit down with Dapper Dan on his couch in a brownstone and talk about a collaboration.
22:27So now it's blurred lines between what's gangster.
22:30You know, you got Rick going, shysties.
22:33Like, you know what I'm saying?
22:35So they get it all from us.
22:36They looking at our little cousins' Instagrams.
22:39Like, I literally went to Pia Pablo's artillery in Paris.
22:44He showed me his mood board.
22:46He's like, yo, I want you to see these models walk.
22:49And he showed me, like, the mixed camos that they had on and the feathers he added on the hat.
22:55And I'm like, these silhouettes look familiar.
22:57And he's like, yeah.
22:58And I was on his mood board.
22:59Like, my Instagram photo was just on his mood board.
23:03So it's like, you know, I tell my uncle all the time, T-Ferg.
23:07I mean, he's, like, one of the flyest guys I know.
23:10Just because your followers is, like, you know, low or whatnot, these people are still looking at your Instagram.
23:17And they're getting a lot of motivation.
23:19And they're making a lot of money off your silhouettes and your looks.
23:22So it's important that if you're a designer or a stylist or creative, monetize off your looks and your silhouettes because God gave you that creation for a reason.
23:34And over here at Essence Ventures, we believe the revolution must be financed at full value.
23:38Hello, hello, hello.
23:40I don't know if I answered your question.
23:42I don't know if I answered your question.
23:42It's okay.
23:43You still can answer it.
23:44But I do want you both.
23:45I don't even remember it.
23:46I was just saying, what's your connection between music and fashion?
23:48You can still answer it.
23:49But I would love for you to just say a little bit more about that ownership component and that.
23:53And, Dan, I know you have the same thought around we are often a culture, right, that is looked at for what is really on trend, what is considered to be what people want.
24:05What isn't always happening is the full value of what we contributed being returned to us in the form of wealth.
24:11I don't care about hugs and in-kind gifts.
24:14I'm talking about money.
24:15And we know that there's a lot more value sitting on the floor of the brands that take things from our culture than should be.
24:24So what do you guys have as thoughts, ideas, advice for how we make sure that our cultural influence, whether I have 10 Instagram followers or 10 million, make sure that gets returned to us with a value that then continues to build black wealth within our community?
24:38For sure.
24:38For sure.
24:39I don't like to think of it, like, as, like, other people taking because that's kind of like a victim's mentality.
24:46Fair enough.
24:46I feel like everybody just gets inspired from everybody.
24:49We all, like, walk in the street and see each other, white, black, Puerto Rican nation.
24:54So it's like we all get inspired from one another.
24:56Just like I might go to Japan and get inspired by, like, what they wear out there and bring it back to Harlem and use some materials to make a jacket.
25:03So I think that it's just important that we know that we don't own the corner stores, a lot of the corner stores that's on our corner where we're buying our chips, our juices and waters, all the Chinese stores we're buying Chinese food from, all, like, these clothing stores, H&M, Zara, all of these places, not coming at anybody.
25:26So, like, the black dollar is not staying in our community, literally.
25:31Like, I watched this show on Killer Mike, and he did an experiment where he said, I'm going to try to live off the black dollar for 24 hours.
25:39And it was super hard for him.
25:41He wound up having to ride a bike because the Uber company is not owned by a black person.
25:47Like, he had to find a black supermarket, literally, which was, like, in West Bubba.
25:53So he had to ride, like, 12 miles out just to go to a black supermarket, which didn't have certain foods.
26:01So it's like, you know, and then when it came to clothes, it's like, think about how many black designers we have available in our location.
26:09Like, so when you think about it like that, because I'm thinking about it like that, whenever I go into a store and I'm, you know, purchasing something, I'm like, damn, is this money staying in my community?
26:23And that's when you start understanding self a little bit more and your power.
26:28And I'm thinking, like, oh, I got five point something million followers.
26:32I'm either buying or I'm selling.
26:34So, like, whenever you post on Instagram, that's all y'all TV show.
26:39I'm tuning into all y'all.
26:41I might randomly go into any one Instagram, and I'm on y'all stories like a TV show.
26:47So if you're wearing Nike and you're flexing that shit, it's making me want to buy Nike.
26:53So you're either selling or you're buying.
26:56And I don't want to sell.
26:57I mean, I don't want to buy.
26:58I want to sell.
26:59So when I go on my Instagram, I'm wearing my shit.
27:03Which is ownership.
27:04Yeah.
27:05Dan, what do we have to say?
27:06That subject, that's, like, the biggest dilemma in the fashion industry.
27:11How do you create the market that we can penetrate and buy from ourself?
27:17Well, what do people want to wear?
27:18They want to wear things that transforms them because the essence of fashion is to transform you.
27:24And this is the lesson that I learned.
27:25The first lesson I learned, man, I grew up holes in my shoes and raggedy in the worst building in Harlem.
27:30But when I got an outfit and I went to 125th Street, nobody knew where I lived.
27:35Ah.
27:36You know, they didn't know I had holes in my shoes.
27:38So it's the transformative power of fashion that makes a difference, right?
27:42But the fashion has to be something that people look at you and say, oh, you know, and give you and store on you that dignity that you want to have.
27:51All right?
27:51But where we get confused at is how do we get to a point where our own people want to wear us?
27:59And pay for it.
28:00We failed that.
28:01We failed that because they didn't pay the attention to the blueprint, right?
28:05When I first opened up my store, everybody, I said, I'm not going to try to create.
28:12And you designers need to listen to this carefully.
28:15I'm not going to try to create only from myself.
28:18I'm going to extract from the people and the community and from the culture.
28:24So if you want to have longevity, you have to, like, create from your mind but leave that space where you tap into the culture.
28:34Because people know what they want to look like.
28:36You might not know.
28:37And your ideas might really be great, but they might not be now ideas.
28:41You know, that works all right for artists like Basquiat, you know, but he ain't a guy with no money with an artist.
28:48But with fashion, you can't do that.
28:50You know, you have to understand how to sell.
28:53When all the black brands, when they ran me underground and all the black brands opened up, they did cookie-cutter clothing, you know?
29:01So they came about, they had black people buying them, and then they all crashed.
29:07Why they crashed?
29:08Because they walked away from the culture.
29:09They depended too much on how they saw fashion should be as opposed to what people wanted to look like.
29:17So you have to extract from your mind but more so from the culture if you want to stay relevant.
29:23All right.
29:24On top of that, we have to get into those spaces where we can be more creative.
29:29You know, a lot of the young people, they run out and start T-shirt brands.
29:34What you have to do, we have to make sure we get inside and understand how a garment is made, you know?
29:41And so how we can produce something that we all want to wear.
29:45We don't, you know, we can't, we can't, we can't get ahead by doing things that's behind.
29:51So I'm going to make a statement and then give each of our panelists an opportunity to kind of give last words because I know we're running tight on time.
30:03But I'm going to do a plug that's not shameless.
30:06It's for your own good.
30:07So we have a lot of things that we do at Essence Ventures and the Sundial group of companies.
30:13One of the passions we have to help anybody who is interested in being an entrepreneur, getting your business off the ground, improving your business, pick a thing.
30:23We have a ton of free resources that are to help you get the information, the training, the connection to build whatever business is your business.
30:31So whether it be on Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever, I want you to go to the New Voices family.
30:35I want you to go to that handle.
30:38You will see there how to get connected to, they have webinars and other things on everything from financing to legal to retail to food.
30:47And that is a, not just a foundation with resources, but it's also the place where a lot of the black brands that you are now seeing and enjoying got their training.
30:56The Lip Bar and Slutty Vegan and Honey Pot came from the same place.
31:00So we are serious about it here and we offer those as a free resource to you to get you all the information you need to start your black business.
31:09But Dan said that doesn't mean you sell to just black people.
31:13And so the idea is to also give you the best chance to get the full value of what your business offers to as wide of a customer group as you can globally.
31:21There is no cost to participate in those things.
31:24Please go with the New Voices family so that whatever kind of entrepreneur you are, the resources will most certainly make you better.
31:32So Dan and Ferg, last words.
31:34I just want to close in saying, remember, we are winning when they copy us, not when we copy them.
31:42I mean, you got to read four hashtags.
31:46Note it, note it, note it, yeah.
31:48Ferg, close us out.
31:50I just want to say, I appreciate you guys for coming tonight.
31:54It's good.
31:55I was just like looking at everybody.
31:57There's so much flavor and style on everybody in here.
32:00And whatever you're doing, creative wise, keep doing it.
32:04Push to the top.
32:05Lock in.
32:06Don't be on Instagram too much.
32:09Lock into your world, build your world out, and you know, we'll be living in your world.
32:15Revolution must be financed at full value.
32:17We are fashion, but we are also a movement.
32:19We are culture.
32:20We are driving things.
32:21Thank you so much for being with us today.
32:23Thank you all for coming.
32:23We appreciate it.
32:24Essence Fashion House.
32:30All right.
32:31Thank you once again.
32:33This was the 2024 Essence Hollywood Essence Fashion House.
32:39Give it up one more time for Caroline Wonga, Ferg, Dapper Dan, and Corey Jarvis.
32:47All right.
32:47As you're making your way out, remember, use the hashtag.
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