Hot on Ice: Dsquared2’s Winter Games of Desire
Review of Dsquared2 Fall 2026 Men’s Fashion Show
By Mackenzie Richard Zuckerman
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Gold Medal Drama & Ice-Cold Drama
“Coming to the edge, running on water”—that’s how the label framed it. And if there’s one thing Dean and Dan Caten have always understood, it’s how to skate that edge between drama and abandon. Fall 2026 saw Dsquared2 careen down the slopes of camp, athleticism, and sex appeal with their usual flair, only this time with Olympic-level commitment.
This wasn’t just a collection; it was a full-blown winter fantasy, complete with glossy ski suits, glitter-dusted puffers, crop-topped snow bunnies, and hyper-stylized Canadian clichés. The mood? Heated Rivalry—hockey is having a moment thanks to that show everyone’s talking about—and Dsquared2 seized it with après-ski lust and theatrical bravado. If we know one thing about the Caten twins, it’s that they never do anything halfway. Where others gesture toward sport, they go full spectacle. And while some may be quick to dismiss the bombast, there’s real design intention humming beneath the noise.
So here’s the question: when fashion is already saturated with irony and camp, what does it mean to go even louder? Does excess still shock, or has it simply become another form of sincerity?
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
To judge this collection by wearability would be missing the point—these aren’t clothes for quiet dressing. They’re for performing identity, flirting with fantasy, and flexing creative muscle. And on that front, the show delivered. From snowboarder boots turned fetish gear to corseted puffers and varsity knits with ironic declarations (Hot as Ice), there was a sense of gleeful contradiction: warmth, attitude, and artifice colliding on a powder-white stage.
Some moments worked better than others. The footwear—particularly the hybrid ski-cowboy heels—stole the spotlight, while certain layered looks leaned more toward curated chaos than cohesion. But even in its messiest moments, the show held its own logic. It’s a mashup only Dsquared2 can pull off: vamp meets varsity, mountain gear meets male pin-up, performance meets parody.
There’s craft here. There’s spectacle. And above all, there’s a sense that the designers are still having fun—and inviting the audience to do the same. The house may not be chasing subtlety, but it’s chasing something equally rare: sincerity through excess. In a season full of self-serious cool, that might just be the most radical move of all.
