Double Trouble

Identical design provocateurs Dean and Dan Canten can always be relied upon to inject some camp playfulness into the fashion week calendar and yesterday’s show was no exception: glam rock with a detour through some of London’s rich – and at times hard edged- sub-cultural heritage. That was what the show notes forewarned and, sure enough, that’s pretty much what came sauntering down the runway.

Kinky Boots

“He’s a tough guy who want’s to wear it all,” the lurid coloured handouts declared, and wear it all he did. That could mean utilitarian pieces like camo parkas and trousers undercut with the showbiz glitz of appliqued sequins. Or, it could mean skin-tight, acid wash jeans tucked into tall, bling-encrusted boots with vast, ankle-endangering platform soles.

Tough Guys Gone Soft

Skinhead pastiche of the most ironic kind could be felt in skinny braces clipped to jeans or porkpie hats perched with queer abandon over heads festooned with piercings. Mod – one of fashion’s most riffed on sub-cultural movements, a fact I’m sure not lost on the brothers Canten – provided (of course) a reason to throw in a parka jacket with checked inserts and a slew of crispy polos. Still not enough going on for you? How about Blondie’s “Atomic” followed by a nostalgia stirring bit of Franz Ferdinand on the soundtrack? Eclectic is an understatement this time around: and we wouldn’t have it any other way from Dean and Dan…