The sweat looks sprayed on, the glitter drawn from the archive: Dsquared² celebrates its 30th anniversary – and the former rush has lost its heat. The fire of the past has hardened into a pose.
The End of Provocation
What once felt like transgression is now routine. Two men kissing under spotlights has become a harmless, almost decorative symbol. The new campaign by Mert & Marcus recalls a time when Dsquared² stood for everything but restraint: loud, feverish, defiant. The photographers press the shutter – yet the bang never comes. Back then, the label embodied a queer, confident lust for excess, energy instead of pose. Today that language feels like a quotation of itself – a gesture no one wants or needs to decode, because it has lost its effect and gathered dust in the archive of gestures.
The Echo of the 2000s
Founded in 1995 by Canadian twins Dean and Dan Caten, Dsquared² became in the early 2000s what Diesel had been in the ’90s: a brand that embodied a particular way of life. While Diesel stood for irony, grit, and rebellion, Dsquared² stood for club nights, muscle worship, and excessive masculinity. Both brands thrived on the promise of freedom – that fashion could be an escape from the world of the uptight. But that promise has run dry. Excess became a design principle, rebellion a brand strategy. What was once dangerous has long since become calculated and predictable.
Staged Loss of Control
The new images of the FW25 campaign are technically solid but soulless. Every shadow is arranged, every gesture staged. What once thrived on the joy of spontaneity has become nothing more than its commercial shadow. The chaos necessary for genuine inspiration now exists only as a lighting effect. Sweat gleams like décor – once it dripped, now it looks like CGI. Desire is aesthetically choreographed. It’s a staged loss of control, where light illuminates only its own harmlessness. The brand pretends to embrace the night, yet it is merely another set in the studio.
The Exhausted Energy
This mode of fashion storytelling, drained by endless repetition of the same scandal placebo, has long been exhausted – not just at Dsquared². Diesel, too, tried to carry its old power into the new millennium, collaborating with Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s stylist. Formichetti brought pop, gender fluidity, and digital irony – but failed at the same core problem: provocation cannot be sustained, cannot be preserved, and with every repetition it demands a higher dose. It lives on conflict, and only as long as there’s something left to break. But nearly all social contrasts have been negotiated and neutralized. The few that remain – war and inequality – can’t be turned into campaign imagery. The rebellion once drenched in glitter has become an empty frame that’s lost its picture.
Spectacle as Substitute
For their 30th anniversary, the twin brothers turned a Milan warehouse into a blinding revue of their own mythology: Naomi Campbell, Doechii, roller skaters, cowboys, NYPD uniforms – and Brigitte Nielsen as a police officer handcuffing the pair. It was a fireworks display of citations – from Cher to Tom of Finland, from glamour to kitsch. The stage smelled of gasoline, the sweat of perfume. Dsquared² didn’t celebrate excess itself, but the memory of it. Everything was perfectly choreographed. The only danger left was to risk nothing at all.
Behind the Scenes
Beneath the smooth surface, reality begins to crackle. In October, Dsquared² announced the dismissal of around forty employees – officially due to “deep and complex challenges.” A euphemism for a downturn that reaches far beyond numbers. While the brand still preaches excess and exuberance, the struggle has shifted inward. There are legal disputes with Renzo Rosso over licensing rights, along with the same old slogan: “We want to have fun and be ourselves.” What once sounded like conviction now reads like a survival mantra from a system consuming its own energy.
Freedom as Stage Set
The fatigue stretches far beyond Dsquared². Fashion has lost its resistance because it has no enemies left. It has become mere clothing. Everything is allowed, every aesthetic legitimized, every stance marketable. Even subversion has become a style. What remains is an industry fighting for attention by all means but producing little meaning. Dsquared² keeps on dancing, yet the rhythm comes from the past. The party that was never meant to end has become more ritual than myth. The brand celebrates its 30th anniversary but now sounds like a cover band of itself. Dsquared² wants to be the flame – not realizing it’s only the match that has already burned out.
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