“It’s basically a leather bar on Christopher Street one fabulous summer night in the mid ’90s,” observed a wise and richly experienced colleague as we grabbed a vodka cocktail and stumbled out from this pulsatingly jam-packed DSquared2 show. It was and it wasn’t. Dean and Dan Caten are long-seasoned mixologists when it comes to blending disparate themes into one punchy new flavor: Tonight’s ingredients were Hawaiian hibiscus-strewn shirting, the aforementioned biker boy leather (with maximum Western-wrought buckles for good measure), plus leopard print, goth-touched winklepickers, denim, ruffled tulle and jersey, and boy scouts (carried over from Resort). Phew!
“See sex without shame! See lust! Raw Naked Violence!” screamed the soundtrack before softening into what seemed a Lee Scratch Perry mix of Echo Beach. If there was a violence to this evening’s DSquared2 mix—and there was—it wasn’t raw, but subject to exactly bold curation. Leopard-print pants trimmed by a long line of buckles below Hawaiian shirt and below winklepickers. Tulle ruffled skirt above winklepicker/flip-flop hybrid below biker jacket and leather baker boy cap. A startlingly sequined Hawaiian shirt worn over biker pants. Every possible variation of the mix was explored, then strafed with scout and then a slightly out-of-the-groove tailoring section at the end. It was an overload, but one which in its craziness maintained a consistent logic—at least until that suiting.
Also proving logical both commercially and logistically, the designers reported, was their decision to go co-ed from their last show in January. “The timing is so much better,” said Dean, ”the women’s gets in the store earlier.” “Plus it’s easier for us to have our brain in one area at one time on one thing rather than jumping from one show to another show,” added Dan.
