Milan Fashion Week: DSquared2 dreams of Deep North dandies

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jan 15, 2022

The brothers Caten returned to their Canadian roots this season with a DSquared2 collection ideal for Deep North dandies and hipster trappers.
 
Like the terrain in the Klondike, their catwalk undulated and twisted around the interiors of the show-space in piazza Lina Bo Bardi, the center of Milan’s new high-tech district of Porta Nuova.

 
“It’s been two long years and just great to be back. We’re alive and excited and we’re nervous. But that’s just the way fashion is meant to be right now. Fashion is our life, so that said please be safe, respect the distance from your neighbor and enjoy our trip,” said Dean, as he and Dan took a pre-show tour of the undulating catwalk.
 
Like at every show in Italy, all guests were obliged to present 'green passes', the local term for a vaccine QR code, wear PPF8 masks, and sit two meters apart. Except at DSquared2, guests often sat on several battered suitcases to witness the show.

One of four runway shows featuring live models staged on Friday, the opening day of the five-day Milan menswear season for fall/winter 2022, which is schedule to feature just under 20 live catwalk events, and several score of presentations in the Italian fashion capital. 

The lockdowns have clearly made the Canadian brothers yearn for the great outdoors of their youth, with a collection boasting fly-fishing jackets; active ski-gear, hiking boots and all-weather parkas.
 
A show that opened with a humongous sleeping bag-style padded parka and plaid jacket worn as a skirt, topped by a Indian knit bonnet and anchored by Pinto pony skin boots.
 
Wrapped in massive plaid blankets and marching in padded gaiters, the cast clearly loved their maximalist clothes - zigzag Inuit woolen jackets; punky trapper shearling jackets; rubberized parkas and camouflage cargo pants.
 
Though these are men whose hikes end in after-hours clubs, attired in harlequin print sweaters made of padded nylon; ballooning patchwork puffers and metallic plaid shearling gilets.

In short, the collection managed to be folksy yet funky, even including cool new DSquared2 X Invicta collab’ sweatshirts, like the ones worn by the Caten brothers when they toured the runway.
 
Entitled '#D3Hi_king', the collection was the latest fashion expression of the desire to escape the confinement of lockdown and get back to raw nature.
 
Or as the Catens put it: “#D3Hi_king plays on words: Get high on life and rule the world as you discover it one mountain at a time.”