DSQUARED2 SKI BOOTS HAVE LEFT THE SLOPES
words by FRANCESCO PIZZUTI
Barely two weeks after the end of Milan’s Fashion Week, and specifically Dsquared2’s snowy show, those massive fur coats and naked torsos still refuse to leave our minds. Even more indelible are the ski boots turned cunty fashion moment; a look that had us all in a chokehold and that has just been made available for limited pre-order on the brand’s official website.
all images courtesy of DSQUARED2
Playing with the lived experience of garments, Dsquared2 has often redirected and flipped the clothes’ referential pool by styling and showcasing them in a daring way. In doing so, the house queers its runway, making its clothes unapologetically unstable, performative, and excessive. Elements like lace tops worn under puffer jackets and fur parkas, as seen in the Fall/Winter 23 show, alongside the oversized baseball caps of the latest collection, leverage contrast and scale, pushing functionality to its extremes to turn garments into spectacle.
When it comes to this year’s ski boots, their spectacularisation was further amplified by the casting of Heated Rivarly golden boy Hudson Williams, whose runway debut injected the show with an added layer of desire and online popularity. Much like Margiela’s Tabi or MSCHF’s Big Red Boot, Dsquared2’s ski boots have crossed the threshold from accessory to performance, going from winter wear to cultural reference in a single stomp.
On the snow-covered runway, the boots were never meant to function; they were meant to be seen — and boy, were they seen. The reception was so incredible that due to the high demand, both versions of the boot, respectively, the She Do SKI BOOT and He Do2 SKI BOOT, have now entered a second phase of existence: extremely limited pre-order.
Fashion, performance, and fantasy have combined to give the ski boot a glorified and much gayer afterlife. In this shift, the boots complete their transformation from runway provocation to commodity, proof that in contemporary fashion, the less an object works, the more powerfully it is wanted.
