Dean and Dan Caten put so much into this collection. A soundtrack that spanned from opera to house signaled the genre-entangling high-lowness they were going for. The look blended ripped denim jeans defined by sequin and a fabulous mixed top of Swarovski-peppered, leopard-print leg-of-mutton sleeves against a dark body with an engraved crest that reminded me of Hergé’s King Ottokar’s Sceptre.
And so, it kept coming. There was variation—much variation—in the detail and order of the parts of these ensembles. Sometimes you had a taffeta-strewn miniskirt, or a Swarovski trucker, or a military striped wool pant, or a flash of check, or a frogging-fronted bandleader’s jacket. But it was all infinite variations of the same entertaining but overplayed theme. But what do I know? Doing Facebook Live afterward with Dean and Dan, we recruited some models to step into the shot, and they spontaneously seemed to love this collection. And there was a glorious recklessness in the bags piled upon bags and the heaped layering of ribboned jewelry on glinting sparkle and animal snarl. But despite the infinite amount of variation at play here, the span within which it played out felt a little limited. Gentlemen, you rock. You should stretch yourselves and deliver something that blows our socks off.
