Dsquared2 embraces Mediterranean ease with sporty-preppy resort hybrids

Mediterranean ease, not rigid dressing

Dsquared2’s Resort 2027 collection makes a clear commercial case for the way people actually dress now: one wardrobe that can slide from city polish to coastal looseness without changing its personality. Shown in Milan, the 35-look presentation pushed the brand’s sporty-preppy DNA toward Italian polish and Mediterranean nods, with Sandra Salibian’s WWD coverage noting there was “without a single lumberjack shirt in sight.” That shift matters because it moves the label away from costume and toward a more usable luxury proposition, one built on pieces that feel edited rather than overdesigned.

The strongest idea here is not day wear versus night wear, or office versus vacation. It is a single, flexible wardrobe language that can handle all three. Dsquared2’s resort offering leans into that middle ground with enough sharp tailoring to feel city-ready and enough ease, shine and skin to feel credible by the sea.

The hybrid formula that still defines Dsquared2

What makes the collection recognizably Dsquared2 is the brand’s long-running taste for hybridization. The label has always liked a high-low collision, and Resort 2027 keeps that instinct intact while softening the edges. Pencil skirts sit beside cashmere V-neck sweaters that reveal lingerie, liquid-lace slipdresses bring in a lighter evening mood, and voluminous ’80s coats add a dramatic frame without tipping into stiffness. Jersey gowns scattered with hot-fix rhinestones do the same job after dark, offering glamor with a relaxed, body-skimming finish.

That blend is the collection’s real selling point. Instead of proposing a complete fantasy wardrobe, Dsquared2 offers pieces that can be mixed into an existing closet, especially if that closet already runs on denim, knitwear and sharp separates. The result is less “special occasion” and more “well-traveled regular life,” which is exactly where luxury is being pulled these days.

Denim gets smarter, tailoring gets looser

The most convincing pieces are the ones that blur categories completely. Distressed jeans reveal bouclé underlayers, turning a familiar staple into something textural and unexpected. Denim-and-tailoring mashups do the same work from the other direction, taking the authority of suiting and making it feel less formal, more lived-in and more useful.

Trench coats with hoodies and sporty mesh linings are another strong example. They speak to a customer who wants protection, movement and ease, but still wants the clean outerwear silhouette that makes an outfit feel finished. Dsquared2 also works stripes into a useful crossover, moving them from sporty to marinière territory so the same visual code can read energetic in the city and breezy on the coast.

This is where the collection earns its “city-to-sea” logic. The clothes are not trying to reinvent wardrobe basics. They are trying to make basics fluid enough to survive changing settings, temperatures and dress codes.

The accessories sharpen the message

The new Roxy bag and the Cosmo mule give the collection a more literal lifestyle hook. The Roxy is an East-West bag with looping belts, and it comes in 10 iterations, a smart move for a style that needs to work across different wardrobes and levels of polish. Its shape is sleek enough to feel urban, but not so severe that it would fight with resort dressing.

The Cosmo mule is even more revealing as a brand signifier. Dean Caten’s favorite Cosmopolitan cocktail inspired the high-heeled style, which gives the shoe an instantly legible wink of nightlife without making it feel precious. That is the sort of detail Dsquared2 does well: something a little playful, a little sexy, and easy to imagine with denim, a slipdress, or a sharp little skirt.

The lifestyle layer gives the collection more range

Dsquared2 also widened the fantasy beyond clothes through collaborations tied to food and place. WWD highlighted partnerships with Sammontana, the Italian ice cream specialist, and Maria Grazia in Nerano on the Amalfi Coast. Those references are not incidental. They root the collection in an actual Mediterranean rhythm, where leisure is not separate from style but part of how style is lived.

That matters because the best resort collections do more than suggest a mood. They create a world a customer can step into, and here the world is very specific: sun-faded elegance, seaside lunches, evening drinks, polished movement between one setting and the next. A brand that can make that feel plausible has something stronger than a trend story. It has a lifestyle language.

Born in Canada, made in Italy, and finally leaning into the Italy

Dsquared2’s identity has always been a transatlantic mix. Founded in Milan in 1995 by Dean and Dan Caten, the label built its name on North American pop energy filtered through Italian craftsmanship. The brand still says the brothers divide their lives between Milan and London while producing collections in Italy, which gives real shape to the motto “Born in Canada, Made in Italy.”

Resort 2027 feels like a more explicit embrace of the second half of that equation. Business of Fashion has long framed the twin brothers as the Canadian pair behind a label that expanded into womenswear, accessories, childrenswear, eyewear and fragrances, and that breadth shows here. The collection is not just about clothes; it is about how to make a whole wardrobe commercially legible across categories, from tailoring to denim to accessories.

That is why the Mediterranean turn feels smart rather than soft. It gives Dsquared2’s signature swagger a more refined address. The label is still hybrid, still playful, still a little irreverent. But in this resort outing, the rougher edges have been polished into something easier to wear, and that may be the brand’s most convincing luxury move yet.