The rain might have been coming down in freezing cold sheets last night, but the temperature on Fashion Avenue was HOT. At the end of the first day of Milan Fashion Week AW25, Dan and Dean Caten gave us the Dsquared2 show to end all Dsquared2 shows, baby, as the dream team designers lit the birthday candles in honour of their brand’s big dirty, flirty milestone anniversary – and yes, they are thriving, thank you very much. From leather daddies and Kiss fans, to cowboys, NYPD cops, and an homage to Cher – plus a surprise performance from a recent Grammy Award winner – here’s everything you need to know. And let us tell you: there’s a lot to get through.
OK picture this: you’re in Downtown New York, hanging outside a pumping warehouse club. It’s plastered with graffiti and fly posters, and steam billows from the grates on the sidewalk into the cold night air. This is the set of Dsquared2 AW25 and you are in the queue for the hottest party of the night. Berghain, who?
The first to arrive at the Dsquared2 Bros. Co did so in a massive armoured truck and, as the door swung open, our show opener was revealed to be none other than Grammy Award winner and burgeoning fashion girlie Doechii, who made her debut to her own banging track “NISSAN ALTIMA”. Jumping out of the van, the musician proceeded to run unbothered down the catwalk in a pair of spindly, vertiginous stilettos, as part of an homage to the time Naomi Campbell was late to her ‘flight’ at the Caten’s AW03 show. So far, so good.
With 30 years now under their belt, it made sense that the Catens dug deep into the Dsquared2 vault to pay homage to the last three decades of design. As brilliantly flashy, trashy, and OTT as ever, the collection was all killer, no filler – from Alton Mason turning it out as a rhinestone cowboy, to vogueing rollerskaters in tiny, shiny hotpants, to Tom of Finland-inspired leather daddies and glam girlies like Anok Yai in butt-skimming sparkly minis and floor-sweeping cut-out gowns, the show was a riot of references from start to finish. We also got Alex Consani looking like a cunty mob wife dripping in black (faux) fur, Kiss fans in band tees and towering heels, Elvis wannabes in slick white suits, and Y2K princesses in distressed denim and logo-plastered trucker hats. The whole thing was an ode to the many avenues of pop and subculture that have shaped Dsquared2 across Dean and Dan’s journey, rounded off by an appearance from longtime DS2 family member Campbell.
Pulling up in a 70s Cadillac came Amelia Gray Hamlin, who stepped out onto the runway with long black hair straightened to within an inch of its life, in a full-on Bob Mackie-esque ‘naked’ look. Studded with hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals and trimmed with marabou feathers, the look nodded in the direction of Dean and Dan’s forever muse, Cher, who Dsquared2 stans will remember actually starred in the house’s 2020 ICON campaign. Hamlin killed it, of course.
About halfway through the show came a series of looks that looked pretty recognisable to fashion stans, and revealed that Dsquared2 had joined forces with NY’s finest Vaquera on a capsule of looks. The first was one of the brand’s signature puffball skirts, matched with a cropped logo hoodie and XXL trapper hat, before a pair of low-slung jeans, well-worn slogan tee, and massive number plate belt appeared. With Vaquera also collabing with Marc Jacobs in late 2024, Patric DiCaprio and Brym Taubensee are becoming your fave designer’s fave designers, and have themselves found loads of inspiration in Dsquared2’s archives across the last ten years.
ACAB, apart from when it comes to the officer on duty who bent Dean and Dan over the back of an NYPD patrol car and slapped gold handcuffs on their wrists – none other than the iconic, the legendary, Brigitte fucking Nielsen. Thankfully, the twins managed to evade her grasp and get loose to come take their finale bow on the runway to a swell of clapping and cheers from the crowd – and you know it’s a good show when the fashion lot actually make some noise.
As if all that wasn’t exhilarating enough, the show closed out with a wild performance from newly-instated model Doechii and City Girl JT, who stormed out together to perform their collab track “Alter Ego”. Joined by the whole cast of models on the catwalk, the two musicians danced with Dean and Dan as the lights came up and the champagne started flowing. Truly, what a night: and only another 10 years until their 40th.
