Little-ish-known fact: Dean and Dan Caten designed Canada’s Olympic uniforms for the Rio Games last summer. The experience proved inspirational for the Dsquared2 duo, despite the fact that the country they hail from is better known for its winter sports than its summer ones. The palette of their new Pre-Fall collection—red, white, and black—was lifted directly from the Olympic gear they created, which in turn was influenced by Canada’s iconic maple-leaf flag.
Beyond the color scheme, there are tree prints on a silk twill dress, and the kind of rugged-looking clothes you might even wear walking through woods like those, including lots of buffalo-plaid wool outerwear and hybridized sweaters that married techy nylon with fine gauge knits. Caramel-color leather was bonded to jersey for pants and jackets that could quite literally stand up to harsh weather. Direct from the factory, the bonded leather had a rigid quality, one that would presumably soften and burnish with wear, in the great outdoors or elsewhere.
This was not a collection of the sexed-up, stripped-down variety one tends to see at the Catens’ runway shows. Instead, it showcased their sportswear chops and technical know-how. The results were more practically attuned to the day-to-day rhythms of their clients, with a graphically color-blocked body-con dress and some fluttery black chiffon numbers for date night and other special occasions.
