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.