Interview

Dan and Dean Caten, the twin-brother designers behind the label Dsquared2, are the hottest sartorial tag team to come out of Milan since Dolce & Gabbana. Actually, the Catens are from Canada, where they grew up before relocating to Italy in 1991. The brothers are as proud of their Canuck heritage as they are of their Milanese design prowess and, dually, their brand combines Italian street chic with the rugged outdoors of their homeland. Dan and Dean started Dsquared2 in 1994, and have since watched their men’s and women’s wear and accessories boom worldwide, and have produced tour costumes for Madonna and Britney Spears. Now they are branching out further, directing their own commercial and, this fall, even hosting their very own Bravo fashion reality show, Launch My Line, where they judge and mentor media personalities who aspire to design a line of clothes. (Full disclosure: I am one of the contestants). The fact that Dan and Dean look alike, speak in a rapid-fire staccato, and finish each other’s sentences only makes them that much more individual—together.

Merle Ginsberg: So you’re here in Los Angeles for a number of reasons.

Dan Caten: Yes. One is to prepare to direct our first commercial for our scent, Wood. We’re going to the woods of Montana. Actually, we created the fragrance a few years ago and now we’re getting around to adding spices for different versions.

Dean Caten: From the very beginning, we imagined how the tv commercial would look—so here we are, doing it ourselves. We wanted to shoot in Canada, but right now it’s really cold there.

Ginsberg: Is this your directorial debut?

Dan: Yes, although when we appeared in the Fergie video “Clumsy,” the director let us run the fashion-show part of the video. And we’re directing every time we stage our Dsquared2 runway shows. Our fashion shows are really theatrical.

Dean: We want to do an Internet version of the commercial that’s really risqué.

Dan: Also, we’re here in L.A. to do dubbing for the fashion reality show we hosted. It’s scheduled to air in September. We just flew 13 hours, then went to Glendale to dub, now we’re doing an interview with you here at Sur restaurant on Robertson—then we’re going to party at the Chateau Marmont!

Dean: My brother and I work hard and we play hard. I think that’s reflected in our clothes. That’s what makes them so hot.

Ginsberg: Of course I know about Launch My Line, because I’m also on it. But I don’t know how you got cast in the first place.

Dean: First, we were just meant to be judges.

Dan: I’m not sure if they were having a hard time finding the right hosts or what. Eventually the thought was, Who the hell’s going to know more about fashion than these guys?

Ginsberg: Did you know a lot about Bravo and Project Runway?

Dan: No, no—nothing! We didn’t even know what Project Runway was. We barely knew who Heidi Klum was.