In the late 1980s, Bruckner Boulevard was a forbidding stretch of asphalt strung with disused factories, dim tattoo parlors and fast-food depots. The thoroughfare, blisteringly sketched by Tom Wolfe in his satirical novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” was part of the wasteland that was the South Bronx — “entire blocks of the city,” as he wrote, “without a building left standing.”

Flash-forward three decades, and this once-shattered swath of New York’s northernmost borough has undergone an image transplant. Neighborhoods like Mott Haven, Port Morris and Melrose are still poor and plagued by various urban ills. But no mistake: The South Bronx, the area that gave rise to hip-hop, is being celebrated — some would say appropriated — by a clutch of entrepreneurs, real estate developers and, inevitably, the fashion tribes.

Earlier this year, Gucci, wise to the borough’s rich cultural heritage, cast its prefall 2017 ad campaign with black models vamping and break dancing at a 1970s-style “Soul Train” party.

“We’ve felt a little like outcasts,” said Henry Obispo, an entrepreneur who is set to open a cold-pressed juice bar and green rooftop for yoga and meditation.