The Caten twins kick off Milan Men’s Fashion Week with a millennial fantasy supercharged with equal seduction and attitude.

As the runway emerges from the darkness, we are removed from the grandiose Milanese fashion circuit and displaced into what seems the adolescent bedroom of the Y2K era with sex-charged video game references and a nagging mother’s voice we’re all too familiar with.

The first look already foreshadows the eclectic wonderland both Dean and Dan have prepared as white fringe bounces off a black jacket with reflective embellishments glistening as they soak up the limelight. The jacket leads the eye to unzipped jeans confronting the audience with the sultry, unapologetic quality deeply embedded within the code of Dsquared2.

Last season, the sensational duo presented a down-to-earth, hippie-chic spectrum of intricate patterns, breathable knits, neutral tones, and oversized fits. This season is anything but neutral as we enter a hyper-fitted domain of gritty charisma and bold sensuality.

Dsquared2 propels its debut womenswear collection, “Star 24/7,” from 2003 at the core of its Fall Winter 2023 collection. This time, the Catens use teenage archetypes—the geek, the jock, the goth, the femme, and the emo—as a vessel for its vision of sheer individuality through style.

The co-ed collection includes decorative preppy insignias embroidered onto the chest of a men’s coat, on the lapel of women’s bomber jackets, and onto V-neck sweaters charging the collection with playful energy.

INVERTING GENDER STEREOTYPES

Toying with gender conventions, Dsqaured2 delights viewers with a collection that flips the script between highly sexualized portrayals of women characteristic of the 2000s and the rigidly confining “masculine” aesthetics of the era by inverting them on the runway through its co-ed show.

As the show progresses, this reversal becomes increasingly apparent as male models sport graphic t-shirts reading “choke” evocative of the Coke logo, and another, “cute and nasty” with a cat illustration. Other notable mentions include the men’s lace-trimmed slip tank top reading “Darlin’” on the chest and baseball caps featuring tiaras.

Delightfully contrasting the feminine menswear, womenswear this season also includes revamped garments traditionally considered “masculine” with a western flair. This spans anywhere from embroidered long sleeve shirts drenched in plaid and fringe cropped for a seductive edge to brown leather opera sleeves lined with fringe serving decorative purposes exclusively.

Evidently, Western influences abound as a plethora of denim featuring large star motifs, colossal belt buckles, chaps, and shearling add to the mélange as both male and female models strut, leaving a ray of quivering fringe in their motions’ wake.

References to the wild west don’t only reside in the collection’s apparel, as its footwear boasts lively variations of cowboy boots in black, pink, and brown.

NOSTALGIA AS A TALISMAN FOR VESTIARY COURAGE

Undeniably, one of the most recurring patterns in this collection is its references to the early aughts. Frayed denim jeans and skirts sink with low-slung waists, while denim layers over chinos. These are a few modern translations of iconic classics featured.

Away with convention does the collection’s vibrant designs, as puffers for men and women are cut from frayed denim or sporty nylon, and denim aprons are layered onto hot pants and boxer shorts.

Apparel bearing themes characteristic of the era, including graphic T-shirts flaunting labels such as “Emo,” underwear as outerwear, microskirts, and asymmetrical cuts for women, indicate that fashion is not done with its vestiary recycling of Y2K motifs. Dsquared2’s eclectic language even includes Pacman characters printed onto T-shirts in a new collaboration with the brand.

References to Y2K act as a magnifying glass to glimpse back at the brand’s history. The most exemplary is its caps reading, “24 7 STAR,” alluding to its iconic 2003 womenswear collection, which will surely enthrall any Dsquared2 aficionado.

Initially launched 25 years ago, the namesake brand revives its signature belt adorned with a metal branded buckle. Other showstopping accessories include a handheld belt bag with the same metal buckle in Western or gothic lettering designed for both men and women and a thermos plastic heart-shaped bag in candy pink, yellow, and black.

Reasserting the allure of the 2000s, Dsquared2 bestows us with a clever tongue-in-cheek blend of high and low culture, most evident with the collection’s final look. As it’s sported down the runway, the viewer’s gaze is confronted with a sheer asymmetrical gown resplendent in silver embroidery and embellishments paired with arm warmers reminiscent of those do-it-yourself conversions from tube socks seen everywhere in the early aughts.

The entire collection presents nostalgia for a time when cool kids used to dress up for the sake of individuality. As the music echoes the word “unique” while the final look circulates the runway, this couldn’t be any clearer.

As opposed to the insatiable desire to generalize fashion with logos prevalent today, the Caten twins once again have stunned with a memorable show of punchy subversion and fearless designs.