Dean and Dan Caten, the identical twins behind fashion label Dsquared2, were born and raised – the youngest of nine siblings – in the neighbourhood of Willowdale, Toronto. But a settled life in quiet suburbia was never on the cards for the charismatic Italian-Canadian duo; they came of age on Toronto's club scene. "We didn't belong at home; we didn't belong at school. Then, finally, we found where we belonged," reflects Dan in a Mayfair club just a few yards from the brothers' London flagship.
Opened in 2015, the Conduit Street store is the brand's biggest retail space worldwide, covering more than 8,000 square feet and topped by their design studio. It joins a growing portfolio of more than 50 boutiques dotted across the globe, from Tokyo to Capri; in Milan, they also own a restaurant. More than two decades after setting out on their own, and with an annual turnover exceeding £150million, the Catens are a force to be reckoned with. Dsquared2 has a superstar following that includes the likes of Rihanna and Beyoncé, and it designed the official uniforms for Team Canada at this year's Rio Olympics.
As business partners and best friends, the brothers are inseparable. To this day, the only significant time they have spent apart was in their late teens – Dan in New York, Dean in Canada. Even then, the distance was unbearable, so they would religiously pen letters to one another. Far from your standard teenage ramblings, these were impassioned reports on style and trends. "There wasn't one letter that didn't talk about fashion," says Dean. "If we couldn't spell the word, we'd draw it." The bundle of correspondence forms part of a cherished trove of mementos tracing the twins' rise from Willowdale to London, the city they call home when not in Milan or summering in Mykonos.
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The brothers complete and interrupt each other's sentences in the spontaneous manner typical of twins, albeit with a delightfully flamboyant and staccato delivery. "I am irresponsible, he's responsible," Dean says of their working relationship. "They say we're like a bird. I'm the wing, so he couldn't fly without me. But I couldn't land without him." "I'm the feet!" adds Dan. "It's completely balanced."
It was during their brief time apart that Dan discovered Parsons School of Design; he returned to New York to enrol, his brother by his side. By day, the pair would attend patternmaking classes; at night, they dazzled on the dancefloor of Studio 54, in outfits they had run up in their shared dorm room. "At school, we only made our own things because we had nothing to wear," says Dean. "Andy Warhol said I was beautiful," he adds, recalling sybaritic evenings in the company of disco-age pin-ups.
In 1992, the duo relocated to Milan, freelancing for fashion brands and working as club promoters, saving their money for starrier plans ahead. Three years later, they set up their own business. "We were 30 and it was time to get back on track," explains Dan. Their debut menswear collection in 1995 was a courageous step that required a determined and multilateral approach – they did everything themselves, from the initial design and sourcing production to styling the lookbook and selling the collection to vendors. ''It was our money, and it was all we had," says Dan. Their philosophy has remained much the same: "We are our own customer. We need things to wear to go to different places." To this end, they test all their creations. For their first full womenswear collection for AW05, they enlisted friend Naomi Campbell to lead a procession of supermodels on the catwalk. Unusually, models picked their own looks from the rails.
An exuberant, fun approach to designing and dressing remains a cornerstone of the brand. Their reputation as magpies translates into collections that are a theatrical blend of themes and narratives. This autumn's Dsquared2 wardrobe is case in point, mixing patchwork fur coats inspired by samurai cuirasses with the flounce of Victoriana. A second spectacle was their AW16 menswear collection with its cross-cultural, period-defying repertoire of influences, from feudal Japanese warrior to Manga princess, with a nod to Scottish clans, and souvenirs from Canada in the form of trapper hats. "We like to take two or three things that really don't go together, then build them and mash them all up," says Dan.
Just like those disco outfits on the dancefloor of Studio 54 all those decades ago, when it comes to Dsquared2, anything goes.
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