The DSquared2 Rebellion: A Blend of Old-School Vibes and Gen-Z Edge

Forget roughing it in the Canadian woods in oversized survival gear, muddy boots, and mosquito nets. This season isn’t about blending into the pines, as it often is at DSquared2, the fashion house founded by Dean and Dan Caten, who hail from the wilds of Toronto. Rather, it’s about being prep school troublemakers defying the norm. “They’re proper, polished rebels,” say the designers. You can’t call them rebels with a cause, unless, of course, style counts.

Draped in sharply tailored linen suits worn with crocheted polos channeling Gene Kelly’s Hollywood swagger, or slouched in distressed denim bombers straight out of James Dean’s playbook, the DSquared2 guys channel old-school vibes with a Gen-Z edge. Their girls are just as sexy and mischievous in rugged, workwear-inspired denim cut into ultra-minis that barely graze the thigh and jarring flashes of eye-popping lace. Bralettes and barely-there lingerie tops peek out from beneath sharply tailored blazers, and zippered denim onesies cling to the body like a second skin. For the Catens, this kind of mixing of masculine and feminine codes is a declaration of personal freedom. True defiance lies in the courage to be unapologetically authentic in one’s self-presentation: “The most rebellious act is to dress exactly how you want.”

On that note, they printed tees, hoodies, and swimwear with Polaroids from the 1970s and ’80s by photographer Tom Bianchi whose snapshots depict Fire Island’s gay community at its carefree, hedonistic height—a tribute to a once-radical queer aesthetic, blending art, identity, and resistance into everyday fashion.