Inside DSquared2 at Twenty Years [Full] | The Business of Fashion

[Music] Canadian twins Dean and Dan Kon are the dynamic duo behind Italian fashion label D Squared which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week in order to pursue their fashion dreams Dean and Dan ventured far from the suburbs of their native Toronto eventually moving to Milan where they set up dsquare today the brand turns over more than €200 million EUR and has expanded to include men's women's accessories children's eyewear and fragrance businesses and even a restaurant D Squared is now set for a rapid Global retail expansion online and off in an exclusive interview at their home in London's nodding Hill just days before a retrospective fashion show the business of fashion goes inside dsquare to learn about Dean and Dan's ups and downs over the last 20 years the lessons they have learned and their plans for the [Music] future hi guys hey it's a pleasure to sit down with you today uh to talk about your fashion Adventure how does it feel to be here marking your 20th anniversary that's a really big number uh I think we consider ourselves very fortunate to have hung around for 20 years you know so many people that started at the same time says you know aren't around anymore and it's a tough business nobody's welcome anybody uh so I guess we're good at Kicking and Screaming scratching we're proud we're proud that we've done what we wanted to do uh we've arrived to a certain point in our careers and um things are actually just kind of falling into place right now but things at the beginning they weren't always easy right you know you've spoken in the past about having grown up in Toronto and you know feeling a little bit out of place um how has that whole experienced in your earliest years back in Toronto in Willowdale which is a suburb of Toronto how how how did that experience shape you well I think you know growing up a little um challenged um challenged with money challenged with with fashion for sure um made us want things more you know I mean we wanted uh we wanted fashion that we couldn't obtain we wanted success that was not in our neighborhood it gives you more ambition it gives you fire and and I think you know um maybe not having is the reason we work harder to have and it's uh it's definitely um a good push it also gives you appreciation too you know if you don't have something you you appreciate it more you work hard for it you appreciate it more and it's more um fulfilling right so looking back at your story this past few days as I've been researching Dean and Dan it seems to me like your first first Big Break came after you left Parson you went to this summer school program and you you moved back to Toronto and you started designing for ports International which you know a lot of people don't know that brand but you know growing up in Canada that was something that everybody saw in all the shopping malls everywhere you know as as a designer or as designers starting out I often tell my own students well you know you should go design for somebody else first what did you learn from that experience at ports well yeah I think you said it best I mean it's always it's always always better to work for someone else and to you know to learn I mean to learn you can and then my boss used to say make make your mistakes on my money because when you're ready you you've already made the mistakes that you years of everyday real situation training from factories in Hong Kong uh just every it was to selling the collection he made us he was amazing Mr luk tabi he's saw us he saw our taste level he and everyone said you you're crazy they're 19 years old they have no school and he said those two boys have taste and there's no school in the world that can teach anybody that and so he took a big risk with you know hiring us and the first day when he hired us he said you know what if you come bring me coffee in the morning that's a help if you turn the company upside down that's a bigger help do what you can do and then in 6 months we were in Hong Kong first class fitting the whole collection and we did like a flip on the collection and then and all of a sudden then people started noticing the brand more sales went up 25% sales went up we started getting covers and stuff and in the all of a sudden the brand kind of had a new face and then people were curious about why the brand had a new face and then then some stuff started coming out about us and stuff and then actually we kind of became a little bit Almost Famous in our own small little realm of of Canada and um it kind of shocked us said you know what that wasn't that difficult and so maybe maybe there's a formula here you know something that we've done here let's just try to take our same will and our same formula and put it on put it on a bigger scale it was also a key point when you sold the company it was our queue we've done six years people do four years in a school we've been six years of on handson training and we didn't really feel like we're we come we don't come with the company and it was our clue to move on and to go to Europe and follow our dreams so you moved to Milan you know far away from Toronto and I understand to make ends meet at first you did some go go dancing at night well it's called go danc imagine it so what was that so what was it like well it started it started off as like a a PR kind of thing to promote clubs and have them you know people come we were into fashion we were into designing we were into costumes so then you know we would sometimes we make costumes like Club costumes and outfits and to be more interesting and to be like image inside a club and so it was so they would pay us to come and look fabulous and people would want to come and see us being B and was that was that the kind of original DNA of the Dsquared brand in a way well not really I think it comes with creativity and I think it comes with us um a whole love for theater and theatrics and and drama and and those kind of things that we find in our shows and find in our collection and at the same time it was a creative release because we were making all the by ourselves uh sewing to um one of the funnest times of our lives and then at some point you sat back the two of you and you said okay Now's the Time it was 30 yeah we reached our 30th birthday and we said oh my God what are we doing we were designing for our big company when we were 19 now we're 30 and we're working in clubs and we're looking at some of our other peers and said I don't want to be that person in five years so let's get back on track and you know get to doing what we really came to do and uh we just said how much money do we have saved and let's put it all together and let's just go for it what was it like do you go back to that first show 20 years ago what what was that show like what was that moment well it was our homesick um I mean collection it was all the guys came out of sort of the forest the green trees and long underwear and oper music and big check plaids and big Canadian looking sweaters and stuff it was very very tribute of who we are you know think I think um what we tried to do also is to really attach ourselves to our Canadian roots and to you know what we are and what makes us different in that industry and uh we kind of tapped into that and we kind of ran with it I think the thing that was really quite simple about that it was a very tiny collection it was a little capsule was 30 pieces so any store any store could you know take a small order and it would make a nice package you know it was it was complete and it was packaged yeah so you know you had these one one C and one complete so it wasn't a big risk for people to buy it and things were cute mhm the the thing is though when when designers go off and and sell their first collection you know they often think that's that's where it ends but actually that's where it starts right so you sell it then you have to go and get it all produced and delivered on time how did you cope with that in the first that was a bit of a drama for us because that that was the production they they had agreed to doing it for us but the only problem is we needed to do the next season and we didn't have any money yet cuz we spent it all in the first season cash flow yeah so there was not enough time spr to get the money from what we sold and so we kind of pleaded with with the factory and we said listen we got a partner to help us financially and he had got us a loan to the bank and uh then we had enough money to carry us through the next season and then we kind of after the third season we said to the factory that was producing is come on guys we're paying for the patterns we're paying for the samples and you guys are just making all the money so we need to start balancing it out and now you guys should be taking care of the samples you guys should obviously it's working we're selling we've paid you in advance for the last three seasons and now our things have to change oh we're going to move on okay and that's kind of what happened another thing I wanted to touch upon you know I was I was going back through the history of your brand and one of the things that comes up of course is music and and and celebrity going back way back to 2000 and and Madonna but then in very rapid succession you know Christina agilera Justin Timberlake Rihanna there's a lot of discussion in the world about the role of celebrities but you know your brand seems particularly interesting one to examine because I think at least from my observation without celebrity the profile you know for a small business you know based in Milan that was you know at the very early stages of development it really helped to break you guys out into the into the global mainstream definitely I mean I definitely think um and even starting with madon I mean she was the first celebrity that we really worked with and and then just the idea about her acknowledging you know and kind of showing to the world oh this is a this is a cool new brand she loves to be first yeah and she comes with that stamp of approval if Madonna thinks you're cool the whole world wakes up and thinks you you know starts to look you know and so in fact after the first relationship we did after the first video and stuff and it was a don't U don't tell me yeah don't tell me video and proceeded to the drowning World Tour which was the whole cowboy segment of the tour with 15 dancers everyone in different outfits um it was great it was a great learning experience and I think the thing too that was also funny about her is I mean the things that she was liking were the things from a men's collection and we didn't do women's yet and so they said okay we'll make them for her and then we added a few things the number one t-shirt and stuff that were like men's things um adapted for a woman and then after she started wearing things it was a season and a half later two seasons that we we we came out with women yeah because there was because people say I want that I want that and and did it happen the same way with all the other celebrities I think the same person that the creative director that we were working with that introduced us to Madonna was the same one that introduced us to Christina it was Jamie King and then uh he was doing tours with them and then they had asked us would you do the opening of this and then we' worked on the tour and then we said okay would you come and do our show and it was kind of like a give and take yeah even you know they were sweet and nice we kind of created a friendship I mean with Rihanna and then we had used her one song in the men's show so we said oh we should just call her have her come and open the girl show with shut up and drive because it was a garage breaks down and she's in a flamous dress and she pulls into the gas station does the number um and it was it was great for us I mean strangely she said you know what my day off is this I said okay we'll change the date of the show and she came over we' brought her over and she did it and she got back on the plan same day she opened our stores the first th store in Milan she kept the ribbon together with us and then got back on the plan went straight up on stage to do a concert in Canada actually I mean we really really appreciate the energy and the support that we've we've gotten from the celebrities that we've worked with I think we try to build a nice relationship I think we're I think we're just very sincere people and we're very honest and straightforward there is one day before us birthday and so she's Sagittarius too we had a birthday party together it's fun I mean and they're they're great for the brand it's really helpful for us I mean people love to see what celebrities are wearing what celebrities are doing and um it's definitely a huge boost the other people that really got behind you were the models can you talk a little bit about how that all happened well I think it because before okay this was also an intelligent move that we have done um before we came out with a full women's collection we said let's let's because if we come up with a collection and we have to sell the bars okay oh we'll try it a little bit noware budget and then we've Wast our energy so they can have a taste and they can buy it and they like it don't like it prep working not working when we will be a full collection so in those nine those nine pieces we wanted to shoot them in the campaign so we were shooting Naomi start with Stephen Klein and Stephen why don't you use Naomi we like use Naomi right so we used her for the campaign we're shooting with her we get get along perfectly it's a great shoot wonderful and they said listen babe we're going to do a first woman's show uh next to open it for us and she's like yeah I'm down I'm down and then so she said yes and then she had signed uh something with the agent that she would do the show and then they the agent showed the other agents and because she was willing to do it for for a young designer budget she got all the other girls to kind of fall in and then everybody see well this is the show to do land the first off and we had this casting of over 750,000 which naturally we didn't have that money at the time uh so you know girls were coming in coming in coming me give me we had the number you don't want me honey I can't afford you I come over give me a pair of jeans I'm coming who said that Carol wow she was the last one to fall in on that it was it was it was great I mean it was probably a moment for us that it was like super it was like hard to but you know what was really cute about that too I mean the thing that was cool and I think maybe the girls feel cool we said you know come in pick your outfit we had all the outfits on the wall you know what would you like you know and then and then it was It was kind of cute cuz they were loving they were loving the collection they were loving the pieces and that also made us feel really positive about okay you know this is they would be our ideal Target person it kind of just was worked out into this amazing energy of positivity also because the the theme was 24/7 star they came out of a plane and we had fans rush in underneath the plane with camera screaming so when I comes out they're all screaming for her name taking pictures from there and she's like you need to have fans at every show they give you such a big energy instead of a boring front row that doesn't even clap right and then it it was kind of like a walk-off it was funny because every girl was trying to outdo the other girl and so it was like there's a lot of energy it was probably probably one of the most memorable shows ever for that reason sounds amazing the rest is kind of History so let's fast forward to today you know like launch women's wear you do the partnership with uh Renzo Roso and staff International how how does it all work now today I mean I think a lot of people are curious about the division of labor between the two I mean just the way the two of you are you kind of complete each other's sentences you you know you your twins how how give us an idea of how it actually works we're a package deal so um I think we are super in sync so you kind of have an eye if not completely together on what everything there's we'll bounce back on certain things that maybe because he's getting so much the workload that you know maybe he has to focus on running on I think from the beginning in the beginning we were both doing things together everything in together and I think now because we have more ground to cover like maybe he'll be doing a woman's fitting I'll be doing a men's fitting the time and then at the end of the day we just you know make notes this is what happened here we had to one collection to do back in the day now we have like almost 15 that's all the creative side of things though but what about the business side is there one of you that kind of takes the lead she's a little bit more patient with that those kind of I I try to stay on on top of the business maybe more than just because I think also sometimes the business side sometimes is a little bit annoying and sometimes it's a little bit um um I want to say it's just kind of makes you lose your interest in in the creativity part so I think to not like to really dampen and damage your creativity I think I can absorb things and take things in a certain way and then then Express them in another way that I mean sometimes meeting they're just like oh I'm over and they talk forever to say one little thing and I know he has zero patience and and it won't get through one of those meetings but I think you can tell me in 15 minutes what it took them 3 hours to tell pretty much right well it's nice that one of you can can drive the conversation and get it done responsible of the partnership so um of course it's not just the two of you right you you alluded earlier to kind of being control freaks but you know I think one of the things that fashion designers AR aren't often known for is is their leadership but fashion designers you know you have you know hundreds of people working with you you have teams of people all over the world you know how do you how would you describe your kind of management style or leadership style how is it that you motivate all these people the the thing that's different about our company is I mean because we're a family it's kind of based on a family kind of um situation I mean I think we treat our employees like family um the people that have been with us are senior people that have been with us some of them from the very beginning um and I think making people involved and keeping people part of it making them working as a team it's I think it's we have a nice energy between our staff it's not like a employee an employer relationship I think we're like a one big family and I think we always say that we're the G cred family some of them have been with us for a long time and some of them have just joined us but we try to make everyone feel welcome and feel like a family right and we're just the Papas have the old the old guys at the top of the hill teach our kids you know the right way well that kind of brings me to my next question which is you know when I when I think of D squar when you know growing up in Canada myself and first hearing about you guys I think of like Denim and like wacky slogans and you know really um kind of inyour face right and today you know you're transformed into these elegant you know tailored you know it looks like napoi style tailoring you know with nice soft shoulders and tell us about how the brand has changed over the years because it's it feels like it's grown up a bit um well I definitely think the evolution comes with time I mean when we started the company we were young we were in a kind of different kind of head head space and we things that we were doing I mean the company really reflects us and our lives so I mean at that point in our time we were still going to clubs we were still going out we were still partying and and we were in another kind of mood I think as we mature and things the party start changing into dinners and the dinners start changing into events and charity things um the the the Wardrobe starts changing with it and um our expectations start changing um so I think always keeping our eles in mind and tailoring to our own needs um the brand is kind of just matured as we matured in age we still love the t-shirts and we love denim uh but you know we're just broadening the the public it's actually to see that trans transition in over the 20 years so I mean even um we do the music for the shows and it's something that we really get involved in and exciting so we kind of want to do this sort of like retrospect from the collections and from the evolution of the jeans and the t-shirt and The Fringe into the you know the Canada part and into the the dark part and into the tailored part and and as as it you know but you see a common denominator that's taking you still from that same denim muddy guy to to the smart tailored guy at the end of the show so that kind of brings me to my next question which is you know you've talked about this transformation of the brand over the years and adding all of these different Collections and you know now you have as you say ready to wear eyewear fragrance underwear kids a large proportion of your business uh is done through licensing Partnerships uh and I think it's the shoes the bags and the accessories that are done inous that's quite an interesting strategic decision to make in terms of how you work can you explain why you've decided to do some things inhouse and some things externally yeah I mean at the first in the beginning everything was one master license who was all in house with with staff except shoes except for the shoes yes you're right and then um then we did another shoe license we did a shoe license with Vini can IO I think from the very beginning when we did the ready to wear with this small Factory that we were involved with uh they didn't have the KN how to produce shoes so we went apart and we saw the G the pros and cons of not everything being under the same umbrella um you know it worked it worked for us so then as we moved on you go in we we could pick which which you know what thing it's like a pizzeria or a restaurant you do one thing you do it great this would be the Pizzeria and a restaurant you have to do a lot of things great and it's a lot harder to find so we prer to in the cases where you know the perfume people that have to be outside lines because they know the perfume sh people have to be outside because it's completely different it gives you more variety I mean if you have to keep everything into one licy then you're dealing with their their people so now by taking it inhouse we can choose from whoever we want you know I have one great Factory that makes jeweled women's shoes and he just makes those I have another Factory that makes sneakers I have another Factory we can spread it all out normally when you have a license do with one factor you have to stay everything inside and some things are not good at doing so you're limited and rest right so over the years you know the business initially grew by adding different collections so it started with men's Weare and then you added women's wear and all of the other collections my understanding is now the real big focus of growth is coming from retail expansion you know retail retail retail I mean this past year or in 2014 you were opening something like more than 15 Stores um and now uh next in in 2015 um there's there's even more retail expansion planned how how does this change the way you think about the business well I think the whole the whole push with retail comes from um image of the image of the brand and how people perceive who we are I mean as you just said um as the brand has matured and has it's changed over the years um it's it's our responsibility also to put the message out the way we want it to be understood because some people have a misinterpretation of who we are and what the brand is so by doing our own retail stores we can communicate exactly the message that we want to communicate we have the look of our stores we have the trained people that understand the the brand understand the what they're the product um it just it's just an easier face for our customer they come in and everything you know they know a best champagne they're comforted and they're in the surrounding they feel that you know and also everything's in one place from the kids to the bags of the shoes to the knitwear to the bathing suits to the underwear perfume eyewear so you know you can't everything so if you can't you know maybe the clothes are you can't fit the clothes you can fit the shoes you can fit the perfume you can fit the eyewear so you can go from like the the entry price points all the way to the top end price points you can go from across every collection but that means you also have to make decisions about where to open stores definitely so you know this past year in 2014 you opened your first store in the states in Los Angeles can you talk me through the decision I mean I'm hitting the American Market trying to figure out like where to open what to sell how did you guys do that okay well I mean definitely this was this was this was the year for America I mean it's it's we're 20 years in business business and and we find that probably one of our weakest markets is the US so um except for except for online so our online our online business which is increasing massively day by day ask yourself why it's because they can't find anything in America they have to go online so and most of the online shopping was done right at from La highest percent of online shopping front was the US second was from Los Angeles so the three stores were definitely going to Target for the first year was Los Angeles and I mean New York York uh Los Angeles and Miami and so um we would have opened New York first but due timing and and stuff la la was easier to open for so that's interesting you used data and intelligence from where people were shopping on the website to figure out where the demand was in the market a little bit yeah it's it's almost simple in a weird way you where where where I mean definitely because it it with there's a lack of us in America America so I think uh pinpointing where it was and that also helps you know um for this department St in they get you know it helps the visual people see exactly what we are it helps uh the the brand awareness it just a good situation the other Market you've been trying to conquer is China and uh you were you opened uh Shanghai Fashion Week back in April but I understand that that's been a really complicated market for a variety of different reasons can you talk about you know the US market is one major Market that's challenging but you know the Chinese Market's a whole different well I think the Chinese market there's just a huge potential that you know we feel like that we're not not going the challenge is different than it's so there's a few issues and the issues are being cleaned up and um we are opening stores we're just not opening at the rate that we wanted to so we're taking tender steps into the Chinese market um good cities I think there's already like eight stores now in China so far um it's just we have to be really precise about where we where we go and who we go with let's let's look ahead a bit I mean you guys have had this look you have these all these Amazing Stories what what do you wish for in 2015 what what what do you hope this year kind of represents for you and your [Music] business I don't know no I mean I think I definitely I think what we find about talking about even 20 years think I think what we're really experiencing now is that you know what now just now 20 years later we're ready now we're ready we have built our foundation we have built our company we're financially set in certain ways we have everything kind of lined up now we have the machine now we need to start pumping her and making her run make us happy in for the future doing the restaurant was kind of a new thing for us I mean the whole lifestyle of a brand and of of of of us and you know I mean we're looking into making doing a spa and a gym and um who knows come along with who know there's there's lots of comes along with hotels get started yeah only just begun one last question which is you know for all those young people who might be in a su a suburb similar to Will oale and they might be in Sydney or they might be in you know in s Paulo or they might be in you know in Hong Kong you know what advice comes in one song Climb Every Mountain right yeah theme energetic positive from The Sound of Music when little Maria was strayed and what does that song mean to you well it's have just go for it I mean I think the thing is um you know it's really not where follow every rainbow till you find your dream it's not where you come from it's where you're going so I mean we came from a little suburb and you know we're kind of everything kind of was against us it's like you know you're how are you going to go from there to there and my our father was the first person to say that and so we're like you know what we're just going to go there and we're going to shoot for there and then if we land if we land over here we at least we Tred to go over there um and I think the main thing with what my advice would be to young people that really want to do something is is to stick with it you know I think sometimes people give up too early you know I mean nothing comes for nothing you got to be prepared to have a lot of hard work and I think you have to really really really want what you want to do you can't just I want to be a designer uh you know a m star yeah you know like it takes time and really it's something that's grown inside us ever since we're this big uh we've always thought that and I think we wanted it more than anything else and I think that's the key yeah well as a Canadian and someone who grew up watching you guys I want to congratulate you I think it's it's a really exciting happy moment for for you but also for everyone who's grown up as your fans and I wish that 2015 brings you even more good things

Channel: The Business of Fashion

Views: 70,904

Keywords: #D20, Fashion Design (Industry), insider, d2, dsquared2, business, canadian designers, imran amed, fashion, Dean And Dan Caten (Organization Founder), Designer (Profession), fashion business, Fashion (Industry), Design (Industry), business of fashion, fashion interview, dsquared, Celebrity (Media Genre)

Id: c1CcziHx7F8

Length: 30min 5sec (1805 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 14 2015