In a major strategic change Dsquared2 has ended its long-time licensing agreement with Staff International, the key operating company of Italian fashion billionaire Renzo Rosso. Who, in turn, has already sued the designers in response.
Dean & Dan Caten, by Giampaolo Sgura
However, six hours after DSquared2 announced the termination of its long-time licensing agreement with Staff International, the licensor sued the fashion house for breach of contract. The conflicting statements suggest that this issue looks like becoming a major court battle pitting one of Italy’s largest fashion empires and one of Milan’s hottest runway brands.
“Dsquared2 Group announces the immediate termination of its licensing agreement with Staff International S.p.A. Consequently, the Group will assume direct control over the production and distribution of its Ready-to-Wear collections,” the Milan-based house said in a terse release Saturday.
“This transition takes effect immediately and will commence with the upcoming Pre-Collection Spring/Summer 2026 sales campaign,” added Dsquared2, which was founded by twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten over three decades ago.
Staff International is the key production wing of Only The Brave, the holding company of Rosso, which also owns Diesel, Marni, Maison Margiela and Jil Sander, as well as the manufauring license of Viktor&Rolf.
“Dsquared2 Group expresses its sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to this collaboration and looks forward to fostering continued partnerships in the future,” the release added.
However, later Saturday, Rosso’s group responded forcefully: “Staff International reiterates its conviction that the license agreement is fully effective and confirms its intention to fully execute it until its natural expiry. Therefore, the company firmly rejects any possibility of early termination of the contractual relationship, and believes that legal conditions for early termination do not exist.”
“Staff International will continue to act with the utmost transparency and determination to protect its rights, honour its contractual commitments and safeguard its reputation, and reserves the right to take any further action,” it added.
The agreement – which is said to last 25 years, with Staff International dates back to 2002, and helped fuel the spectacular development of Dsquared2, the last runway brand in Milan to have grown into a major global fashion brand.
Born in Willowdale, Ontario, Dean and Dan Caten (Catenacci, originally) began their career path in fashion by moving to New York in 1983 to attend Parson’s School of Design. In 1991 they arrived in Italy where in 1994, after numerous collaborations with major fashion houses, they first staged their debut runway collection. It marked the first in a long line of runway extravaganzas that would capture the attention of journalists and buyers for their unique brand of fashion, music and theatre.
The Catens went on to build a multi-million dollar business. And to dress everyone from Madonna in her iconic western video clip, “Don’t Tell Me”, to Beyoncé for her Super Bowl performance. The duo also has an impressive range, all the way to dressing the four-time English Premiership Champions, Manchester City. And a great HQ, a former electric energy headquarters converted into office, show-space, inn, gym and rooftop restaurant with swimming pool. They have become one of the city’s great fashion institutions without ever losing the DNA of the Wild North. And famed for their ovations, where they take their bow in matching outfits – whether disco dragoons, Klondike trappers or matinee idols.
Leave it to the Canadian duo to stage an epic 30th anniversary show in Milan this past season, the cast marching out of a wrecked brick garage, or arriving in a series of mighty wheels. From armored personnel carriers and Ford Mustang convertibles to an all-silver DeLorean and a vintage Rolls Royce – all took turns arriving in the huge warehouse done up like a nightclub.
All of the Caten’s great archetypes got an outing. Mad saucy trapper girls in giant puffers and lots of legs; a trio of rockers with Kiss goth makeup but in three-piece suits; Klondike gold diggers off to an all-night rave; sexy vampy rock goddesses with bumster leather pants and fur coats with trains; and a beautiful black rodeo gal with mini cocktail made of bands of Western belts. Leading to the arrival with sirens of NYC police car, from which emerged a dominatrix leather police captain played by Brigitte Nielsen escorted two white collar criminals. You guessed it – Dean and Dan. Before, amid huge roars, JT and Doechii took the floor in a call and response duet surrounded by the entire cast.
Renzo Rosso’s fashion holding company OTB suffered a setback in 2024, seeing revenues fall 4.4 percent at constant exchange rates to 1.8 billion euros, recording EBITDA of 276 million euros and EBIT of 44 million euros. Retail (+7.4 percent), Japan (+16.3 percent) and North America (+13.3 percent) held up. Among the brands in the portfolio, Maison Margiela (+4.6 percent) and Diesel (+3.2 percent) performed positively.
In the past fiscal year, the Vicenza-based company sustained investments of 77 million euros, with a focus on the expansion of the retail network and major innovation projects.
The possible departure of DSqyared2 will be seen as a setback for Rosso, who has long praised the brand as a dynamic creative force. Like every season, Rosso sat front row at the 30thanniversary show in Milan on February 25th.
“Staff International will continue to act with the utmost transparency and determination to protect its rights, honour its contractual commitments and safeguard its reputation, and reserves the right to take any further action,” read the last paragraph in Rosso’s company statement.
Vacheron Constantin, the oldest continually operating Swiss watch brand, just revealed the world’s most complicated wristwatch. The Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is a double-sided technological feat that took eight years of research and development.
Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication – Courtesy
It boasts a record-setting 41 complications, including five astronomical functions—one of which is the first of its kind. And it was all developed, engineered, and assembled by a single master watchmaker.
Vacheron Constantin has filed 13 patent applications for this watch, whose new movement, Caliber 3655, consists of a mind-boggling 1,521 hand-assembled, hand-finished components. In fact, just the assembly of the movement itself (the engine of the watch) took almost a year to complete. In addition to the five astronomical complications that have never been combined in a wristwatch before, it also features a specially-conceived minute repeater with Westminster chime (which sounds the time on demand using four hammers and four gongs in different tones), for which seven of the 13 patents were filed.
Crafted in 18-karat white gold, the round timepiece is remarkably wearable at 45 millimeters in diameter and 14.99 mm in thickness. In fact, the main directive to the watchmaker (Vacheron Constantin won’t divulge his name) from brand executives was to “create something extraordinary but in a compact wristwatch,” says Christian Selmoni, Vacheron Constantin’s style and heritage director. The movement itself measures 36mm in diameter and just under 11mm in thickness. As such, the watch is hailed by the brand as a masterpiece in the art of miniaturization.
“To fit so many complications and components inside is a fantastic feat,” says Selmoni. Putting 41 complications into a timepiece “without rethinking the entire structure would mean a pretty big, pretty thick watch. Making it as compact as possible was a huge driver for innovation.”
So, what exactly can you do with this watch?Well, imagine tracking the tides, the position of the sun and the moon throughout the day, and even having the ability to find a particular star at night, all on the wrist. There’s also a Gregorian perpetual calendar, three lunar indications, including an astronomical moon phase indicator with the age of the moon displayed, a tourbillon escapement (to compensate for errors in timekeeping caused by the effects of gravity when the watch is in certain positions on the wrist) and a 24-hour second time zone and world time indications.
The technologically advanced movement’s unique architecture allows for three ways of telling time: civil (the 24-hour day), sidereal (the actual time—23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds—it takes for the Earth to fully rotate on its axis while revolving around the sun), and solar, or tropical, time (the time it takes for the sun to return to a certain position). All of these times vary throughout the year. The differential is called the equation of time, which is also displayed on the watch.
There are also five highly specialized astronomical complications (among the 14 astronomical complications on the watch) with three patents pending that offer information about the path of the sun. One innovation is a world-first: a celestial sky chart that lets the wearer locate when a specific star or constellation will appear in the night sky. This temporal tracker is linked in the mechanism to the watch’s split-seconds chronograph (that allows for timing multiple events with different end times) and the subject of one of the patent applications.
Another patent is for what the brand is calling the “plug and play” system, which was years in the development process. While not counted as one of the 41 complications, it’s an ingenious development designed to simplify the servicing of the watch.
“This system at the heart of the movement was created so that when the owner has to service the timepiece, the watchmaker doesn’t have to remove multiple hands or dials or complications. It is a sort of module that can be unplugged,” says Selmoni. “It was designed to save days and days of work in servicing.”
According to Selmoni, one of the fantastic aspects of this world’s most complicated wristwatch is the functions’ readability. “Our watchmaker, who is also an engineer, designed every dial, every indication so that it would be very easy to read. This is absolutely not easy to do. He had to reinvent the layout of the functions, create a new camsystem and even design a new case to fit the movement the way he envisioned.”
Of course, Vacheron Constantin, 270 years old this year, is no stranger to the world of record-setting complicated watches. Just last year it unveiled the Berkley Grand Complication double-sided pocket watch with 63 complications. It has also created multiple highly complexwristwatches in recent years, such as the Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600 in 2017 with 23 complications and the Les Cabinotiers Grand Complication Split-Seconds Chrono Tempo from 2020 with 24 complications. Each of those watches measured 50mm in diameter and 20mm or more in thickness.
The Les Cabinotiers Solaria, though, breaks not only Vacheron Constantin’s records, but the records of other top brands, as well. The watch is a unique piece, though Selmoni says he hopes that another rendition or two might be made in a different case material or with different dial colors. And the price? The Swiss manufacturer isn’t disclosing that. Previous highly complicated wristwatches from Vacheron Constantin often carried price tags of upwards of $2 million, and those had way fewer complications and patents filed.
Global fashion brand Mango is accelerating its expansion across the United States with the opening of its first stores in Oregon, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Mango expands U.S. presence with new store openings in Oregon, New Mexico, and Nevada. – Mango
These strategic openings mark significant milestones in the company’s ambitious growth plan, which aims to strengthen Mango’s presence in key U.S. markets.
The new Oregon store is located in Pioneer Place, the heart of Portland’s bustling business district. Meanwhile, the New Mexico store is set in Albuquerque’s Coronado Center mall, and the Nevada store is opening at Fashion Show Las Vegas.
The newly opened locations feature Mango’s Mediterranean-inspired New Med store concept. Mango’s store in Oregon and Nevada offers products exclusively from its Woman line, while the New Mexico location carries both Woman and Man collections.
“We are thrilled to continue executing on our expansion plans,” said Mango’s director of expansion and franchises, Daniel López. “This opening reaffirms our deep commitment to the U.S. market, a fundamental pillar in our global strategy, as well as the positive reception of our differential value proposition by our customers in the U.S., a key market that is experiencing double digit growth.”
Mango first entered the U.S. market in 2006 and launched its expansion plan in 2022 with the opening of its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
In 2024, Mango exceeded its goal of reaching 40 company-owned stores in the U.S., with recent openings in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C., as well as expansions in California and New York. The company also launched its second off-site logistics center near Los Angeles and introduced its omnichannel loyalty program, Mango Likes You, to American customers.
Looking ahead to 2025, Mango plans to open 20 additional stores, bringing its total to around 65 company-owned locations. Expansion efforts will focus on the Sun Belt and Northeast regions. Mango will also enter new markets in Connecticut, Arizona, Ohio, and Louisiana, while further expanding in California and Texas.
British consumer goods giant Unilever has just acquired the acquisition of Wild, the UK-based personal care brand launched in 2020 by Charlie Bowes-Lyon and Freddy Ward. While the financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, Sky News previously estimated the deal to be valued at £230 million (€275 million).
Products from the brand Wild – DR
Founded as a digitally native vertical brand, Wild has made a name for itself with a range of deodorants, lip balms, and body care products crafted from naturally derived ingredients, packaged in reusable aluminium cases and recycled plastics. The brand is currently the market leader in refillable deodorants in the UK.
In 2023, Wild reported £47 million in revenue, representing 77% year-over-year growth, according to Sky News.
“Wild’s innovative approach to formulation, packaging, and social-led marketing makes it a stand-out brand that perfectly complements our personal care portfolio,” said Fabian Garcia, president of Unilever Personal Care.
Unilever’s Personal Care division, which includes household names such as Dove and Axe, generated nearly €13.6 billion in revenue.
In 2024, Unilever reported total revenues of €60.8 billion, reflecting a nearly 2% increase compared to the previous year.
Entertainment8 years ago