Kicking off the menswear schedule in Milan, designers Dean and Dan Caten were in a celebratory mood as they staged an epic 25 Years of Dsquared2 brand.
“Iconic pieces from the archive are redesigned by playing with proportions, super tights and shrunken or oversize,” the show notes read, adding that every look appears as if it’s treated with a “lived-in soul.” In other words, they took the brand’s core pieces like Montgomery coats, bustier dresses and platform boots and gave it an utterly of-the-now feel.
Celebration and reflection continue in our fashion issue as we delve into the wild world of Dsquared2. Co-founders Dean and Dan Caten celebrate the brand’s 25th anniversary, with the expansion of their ICON line. Double denim never looked so dreamy. “We found a little factory and we paid for everything, made the samples, and we sewed them,” Dan tells us from Milan, reflecting on the beginnings of their world-famous line. Their first collection was well-received, and it wouldn’t be too long until they caught the eyes of the A-list. Does the name Madonna mean anything to anyone?
The celebratory runway show kicked off nearly five days of fashion previews of mostly menswear for the next cold-weather season. The Milan calendar is ever-shifting and some fashion houses, like DSquared2, chose the lower-key menswear week to show off both men’s and women’s collections side by side.
Some notable Milan mainstays like Versace were missing from the calendar, opting to merge womenswear and menswear together for the first time during next month’s shows, while Jil Sander chose to show at Florence’s Pitti Uomo earlier in the week. Gucci, which returned to Milan after decamping to Paris for the last menswear turn last June, will close fashion week on Tuesday.
The Canadian twins treated the crowd to a slide-show of 1960s childhood photos and career highlights after they burst onto the Milan fashion scene with their reinterpretation of rugged Canadian style with sexy Italian flair.
The collection was disciplined, hewing to the fashion house’s cold-weather credo of outsized Canadian outerwear of fur, leather, down-fill and checked flannel over snug, hip-hugging, mini and midriff-baring looks.
And he layered her sheer cardigan with a checked flannel top and shearling coat over distressed skinny jeans and boots.
Closing the show, Sister Sledge tacked on “and brothers” to the familiar chorus, “I got all my sisters with me” of their 1979 hit ‘We Are Family.’ Their attempts to get the crowd to sing along fell on deaf ears.
Photography: @giampaolosgura
Words: @lewiscorner
Photography: @jakub_koz
Fashion: @umarsarwarx
Words: @lewiscorner
Models: Elliot Meeten @elliotmeeten at @chaptermanagement & Kieran Warner @kieranwarner_
Grooming: @gracexhayward using @narsissist
Fashion Assistant: @sollyotwarner
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love elliot meeten so much!