Dsquared2 Spring/Summer 2027

For Spring/Summer 2027, Dean and Dan Caten pushed their exploration of Italian identity further, moving from the sun-soaked ease of Resort into the more theatrical world of Southern Italy and Catholic iconography. Sicily, rosaries, gilded saints and crosses were placed alongside rap swagger, ’80s pop references and the rebellious romance of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. The result is a collection built around the sacred and the profane, where communion dressing sits beside bare skin, distressed denim and gangster attitude. It is an obvious Dsquared2 proposition, but the collision of references gives the clothes a certain energy.

Menswear is where the concept feels most convincing. Tailoring is deliberately turned inside out, with loose jackets revealing their linings, internal waistbands pulled to the exterior and blazer construction transformed into a cross-shaped motif on shirts. Low-slung trousers expose underwear, waistcoats leave tattooed torsos visible and distressed denim is punctuated by printed or studded cherubs. These are not particularly subtle clothes, but the construction gives the provocation a physical logic. The Caten obsession with hybrid garments is also evident throughout, with familiar pieces appearing interrupted, dismantled and recombined.

The religious references become more playful in the details. Doily pockets and pristine crochet socks evoke communion dressing, while Creeper shoes, dangling cross-shaped pins, medallions and exposed lingerie pull the clothes firmly back into Dsquared2’s more rebellious territory. A vivid tropical print combining rosaries, sacred hearts and ’80s colours brings another layer of pop excess. In womenswear, however, the formula feels less resolved. Slinky dresses, lingerie inserts and asymmetrical exposure continue the brand’s familiar language of sex and provocation, but they do not always have the same sense of construction or surprise as the menswear.

The collection works best when the Catens allow their contradictions to become structural rather than simply decorative. Their Catholic imagery is less interesting as symbolism than as a way of playing with ideas of innocence, rebellion and the body — a doily pocket can sit beside a barely-there dress, while a rosary becomes jewellery or a fastening. Even without the usual runway spectacle, the oversized lookbook imagery plastered across the Dsquared2 headquarters made clear that this was still a collection designed to be seen. SS27 does not attempt to resolve its contradictions; it leans into them, producing a deliberately excessive vision of Italian romance where faith, fashion, sex and pop culture are all part of the same fantasy.