Dean Caten just slayed DSquared2 in full drag

Thirty years into their fashion careers and Dean and Dan Caten are still the life and soul of the Milanese party. As famed for their love of a boat party in Mykonos as they are for their logo-emblazoned, high octane fashions, it’s also well known that twin Dean (no, we can’t tell them apart) loves to slip into drag and channel his inner diva from time to time – and this season, on the runway at the pair’s AW24 DSquared2 show, the audience got a full taste of exactly that.

The show itself saw ‘busted’ models in the brand’s signature flashy, trashy nouveau take on the Y2K aesthetic it helped pioneer – all oversized faux fur trapper hats, ravaged denim, and blinged-out accessories – get a glow-up halfway round the runway, as they stepped into a futuristic pod a la 00s makeover series Snog, Marry, Avoid. With the event announced via a clinical bottle of undisclosed liquid by way of invite – which some attendees took to be Botox, and others Ozempic – the made-over models emerged with new, improved faces and high-glam floor-sweeping gowns, enormous feathered coats, and sleek, sexy, 70s inspired tailoring, as part of a tongue-in-cheek ode to the power of plastic surgery and the influence it wields way beyond fashion.

Eventually, as the last model disappeared backstage, just one Caten appeared to take a lap of the runway, as the audience looked confusedly at each other. But as the best of George Michael’s “Freedom 90!” kicked in, out stepped Dean in full drag, incorporating a Diana revenge-esque dress, towering stiletto heels, and a coiffed orange wig that seemed to channel Linda Evangelista at the dizzy peak of her career – proving that if there’s one thing the twins know how to do, it’s put on a show.