DsQuared2

Yesterday in Milan, Dean & Dan Caten celebrated 30 years of DsQuared2: three decades of naughty bravado, sultry hedonism and campy glamour. Their autumn-winter 2025 fashion show, which had everything from a Doechii performance to Naomi Campbell finale walk, was a glorious look-back at the Canadian brothers’ all-time favorite runway characters. There were cowboys, lumberjacks, bombshells, BDSM aficionados, high-octane starlets. It all ended with Brigitte Nielsen dressed as a police officer, arresting the Catens – who, dapper in tuxedos and towering platforms, broke free from their cuffs, kicking off a raucous after-party. Fun fact: the Dsquared2 line-up included collaborations with Magliano, Vaquera, and Bettter, all of whom were welcomed into the Catens’ archives to rework past designs. The brothers still know what’s up.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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No one does a show in Milan like Dean and Dan Caten. Their autumn-winter 2024 DsQuared2 show was about the idea of twins. Who better than the Canadian brothers should have a say in the representation of “the two sides of the coin,” as they said backstage? Drawing upon their own reality of being a sort of day-and-night double version of each other offered the Catens the occasion for an entertaining show – fun, uplifting, with the right amount of camp and lots of maximalist mashed-up styling. The cast was obviously made of sets of twins, one of which was dressed in Dsquared2’s typical grungy daywear; upon entering a “makeover machine,” the other twin emerged glammed up in the evening version of what the first was wearing. The set, a shiny white box, served as glossy backdrop for the finale coup-de-théâtre, with the Catens taking their bow – Dan looking macho in fitted black jeans and an alluring see-through glittery chiffon shirt, and Dean playing the diva in a flame-red hairdo and black corset dress slashed at the front revealing a great pair of legs, teetering with consummate confidence on ultra-high stilettos. They brought the house down. As for the clothes in the co-ed show, there was great outerwear of the outdoorsy, furry, and fringed variety; fabulous distressed and patched denim; fair isle knits, cargos, destroyed tees, trapper hats, and sequined chaps, all jumbled together and styled with slinky abandon. For evening, black dominated, with body-skimming and plunging necklines for the girls, and sultry slim tuxes with femme undertones for the boys. Haley Wollens’ styling makes DsQuared2 look hotter than ever. Fashion for the Catens is going in just one direction: sexy, sassy, with humor to spare, and entirely guilt-free.