Dsquared²

MILAN, February 21, 2008
By Nicole Phelps
This season, the Dsquared² girl is a secretary, or maybe a librarian, with a seriously wild streak. By day, she wears a little cardigan tossed over a belted turtleneck and pencil skirt, a camel coat with a fur collar, or, when she's feeling bold, a tartan skirtsuit with pleats at the back of a nip-waisted jacket. But after dark, it's a different story. She spends most nights at her lover's place, in lingerie: black silk camis under fitted blazers, or a bustier dress with silver spikes. Sometimes the lingerie stays on for the morning dash back to her place. The show's last look wasn't a big gown, but a nude and black teddy that the model coquettishly hid from view behind a fur chubby on her proverbial walk of shame.

As lascivious as that sounds, this was a fairly buttoned-up show for the theatrics-loving Caten brothers. It featured some of the outerwear they do so well—including a tweedy pod coat with a fur collar and a sportier take on the same shape with a gold zip closure. Too bad these were almost obscured amid the flesh-tone fishnets and platform pumps with lightning-bolt heels (which several of the girls had a curiously difficult time keeping on their feet). That the Catens should be such unreformed party boys but excel at chic practicality is an irony appreciated by a growing number of observers, but it still seems lost on them.