BEAUTY: Clothing--Dsquared2

The work of Canadian twins Dean and Dan Caten for their label Dsquared2 has always struck me as hit or miss...with their obsession with denim and sportswear, so often the collections end up feeling a little trashy, a little "suburban shopping mall." They present interesting collections now and then, but such highlights can be balanced out by such bombs as their offensive penitentiary themed showed (which can be seen nowhere on this site). So for their FW '24-'25 collection at Milano Moda Uomo, they showed a collection that was predicated on the idea of twins...literally and figuratively (the Catens are twins after all). And it turned out to be a delightful presentation.

Garments came in two versions: blue collar and glam. But the fun conceit was, a large sterile white room was fitted with a sci-fi, electrified "changing machine," and each model walked into the contraption grungy, dirtied and yes, trashy, but emerged sleek, coiffed, made up and glammed out. The theatricality of it is very entertaining. But I had an a-ha moment as I watched the first batch of blue collar/trailer park boys and girls strut through in knit ski hats, caps, and trapper hats of such large proportions as to be comical. That coupled with their exaggerated versions of blue collar wardrobe staples made me think, "This is so bizarrely cartoon-y." And there it was. Maybe that was the key I needed all along to unlock the Caten's approach to their work: it is all cartoon-y. And that's ok!

Check out the twins below and notice how some element in the trailer park side makes its way into the jet-set side...silver sequins, blue sparkles, black leather. And the Caten men were not excluded. At the end of the show--in the video embedded below--watch Dan take his walk as a DILF in a black sheer shirt, enter the "glam machine," and come out as Dean in full drag beat as supermodel Linda Evangelista...and Dean has some great legs!

https://www.dsquared2.com/us/