Hailee Steinfeld went home empty-handed from the Academy Awards last night, but her brand of true grit was alive and well this morning at Dsquared². Dean and Dan Caten rustled up a Wild West theme for Fall, complete with a covered wagon, a mountaintop backdrop, and a snow machine. The frontier girls sported long black leather duster coats, faded and frayed jeans, prairie blouses with high collars and puffed shoulders, and belted and peplumed jackets. A blazer and full-legged pants with a paper-bag waist in wrinkly linen looked like it had been filched straight out of one of their pardner s rucksacks. The 20-gallon hats were a no-brainer for the Catens, who love an OTT extra. As for what to make of the models lace-up boots with ice skate blades for heels, well, it must be freezing at those altitudes. That would also explain the collection s grandiose furs.
If this wasn t the high camp that the brothers have sometimes produced on the runway, it wasn t quite real life, either. You d need Rooster Cogburn as an accessory if you gussied yourself up head to toe. Piece by piece, though, Dsquared² s grittier girls could make it work.
