With all-American sportswear making news on the runways, this could've been a big moment for Dan and Dean Caten of Dsquared², who built their label by putting a sexy, contemporary spin on preppy classics. Disappointingly, they went all-out vamp instead. To start, two models strode out with slicked-back hair, makeup straight out of a Helmut Newton shoot, and pointy manicures. In their little black cocktail dresses and matching red latex leggings, they could've been twins. There followed clingy leather motorcycle jackets and skirts, a bustier with padded hips dripping in shredded metallic fringe, and a biker jacket stitched all over with red and black feathers. Subtle it wasn't.
On the stage behind the runway, a pair of he-men in metallic jock straps and bandages stood beside their storage tubes. In keeping with the laboratory-like setup and its Frankenstein implications, the back of a black jersey gown was embroidered with a sparkly ribcage, and skeletal silver hands gripped the shoulders of a leather hourglass dress. Somewhat less obvious was a pair of net bodysuits with red and blue beading that represented arteries and veins. But there was nothing understated about the models' footwear: leather platform pumps and boots with curving spinal-cord heels.
The Caten brothers were probably aiming for a kinky bit of fun, but icky is more like it. No doubt, there's still a customer for the sexual come-ons that they sent down the catwalk, but the collection as a whole felt out of step.
