Fashion can be a guarded, cautious business—it’s not often that you see well executed examples of designers throwing that caution entirely to the wind. Tonight, Dsquared2’s Dan and Dean Caten exhaled a sartorial fuck it, and went pedal to the metal. The move paid off to hedonistically satisfying effect.
The Catens nailed an unlikely trio of inspirations for Fall (showing both womenswear and menswear together): winter sports, nouveau-grunge, and psychedelic indulgence. “Our keywords are steep, Nirvana, and opulence,” said Dean. “Steep giving you 2,000 meters above sea level, you know, snowboarders . . .” Dan jumped in: “and Nirvana isn’t really like the grunge of back then, but there’s some element of it, some plaids; we’re Canadian after all. And the opulence . . . well . . . she’s kind of trashy and rock-y, together.” They settled on a phrase: “It’s alpine glam Seattle!” Dan concluded.
With that descriptor came an undeniable heat; the show opened with a men’s Western shirt, tie-dyed in neon-pink and fire-yellow, over kick-flared red tie-dyed pants. A waistband was exposed; fringed beading fell from the front of the top. Next came a redheaded Mariacarla Boscono with a flannel hanging off one shoulder, her miniskirt wrapped in chains. Throughout, Def Leppard’s signature font was adapted to read “Dsquared2” (and though the group peaked before Nirvana’s era, the typeface still worked, at least in terms of graphic fuel). It was hard not to smile at a python parka—jet-black in body but treated with a rainbow simmer.
This collection won’t appeal to everyone, and some pieces, like shearling coats, felt redundant. But for tamer tastes, there were beautifully tailored blazers shown on both men and women, and versions of those slightly flared snowboard pants in more neutral colors. But given the confidence of this lineup, why not go big or go home?
