Fall 2009: Obama saves the day, gets the girl at Dsquared
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Hours before Barack Obama was to be sworn in as the next president of the United States of America, Canadian design duo Dan and Dean Caten ended their Dsquared Fall 2009 runway show here in Milan with a valentine of sorts to the soon-to-be leader of the free world, ending their ‘30s-flavored, ‘carnation and spats meets denim and distressed engineer stripe’ collection.
Back in December, fashion industry trade paper WWD surveyed a handful of men’s wear designers about what the president-elect should wear to celebrate the occasion, and the Catens sketched out a full black
tuxedo with tails.
Although the version that appeared at the end of this morning’s runway show was sans tails (that particular flourish did appear on several jackets and even vests throughout the show), it was elegant, a shawl-collar jacket with a frog closure, over a pleated-bib, wing-collar, formal tux shirt with black bow tie.
And just in case anyone missed the hint, at the end of the show Faux-bama stood at the foot of an elegant staircase as a woman stage-stumbled down the stairs to the tune of ‘The Show Must Go On.’
As she collapsed into his arms, the song shifted to the optimistic ‘Annie’ tune ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.’ Little did the brothers Caten realize the first rays would flicker just a few hours and a few thousand miles west when Michelle Obama stepped into view wearing a sparkling yellow ray of sunshine in the form of an Isabel Toledo dress.
-- Adam Tschorn
Top photo: The finale of the Dsquared Fall 2009 men’s show in Milan today. Credit: Peter Stigter