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 and Dan Caten – Giampaolo Sgura
However, six hours after DSquared2 announced the termination of its long-time licensing agreement with Staff International, the licensee 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 against 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 lunchtime.
“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 manufacturing 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.”
The agreement with Staff International – which is said to last 25 years – dates back to 2002, and helped fuel the spectacular development of Dsquared2, the last runway label 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 Parsons 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 blend 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 a NYC police car, from which emerged a dominatrix leather police captain played by Brigitte Nielsen escorting 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 DSquared2 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 30th anniversary show in Milan on February 25.
“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.
President Donald Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” in the United States on Wednesday as he prepared to impose sweeping new tariffs that would escalate a trade war with global partners, increase prices and upend a decades-old trade order.
Reuters
Trump has kept the world guessing on the details of the tariff plans, which were still being formulated ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).
U.S. stock indexes opened sharply lower on Wednesday, extending a selloff that has erased nearly $5 trillion of value since February.
The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, while a separate 25% global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.
As of Wednesday morning, the White House had not published an official notice of either set of tariffs, as it is required to do before they take effect. The administration also has declined to comment on reports that Trump was considering a 20% universal tariff.
“IT’S LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform. Trading partners are expected to respond with actions of their own.
“It will be negative the world over and the density and the durability of the impact will vary depending on the scope, on the products targeted, on how long it lasts, on whether or not there are negotiations,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Ireland’s Newstalk radio.
Trump, who once called the word tariff the “most beautiful word in the dictionary,” has said his reciprocal plans would match U.S. rates with higher levels charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that he says disadvantage U.S. exports.
Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said the auto tariffs would return strategically vital manufacturing capabilities to the United States. “This isn’t protectionism. It’s restoration,” he wrote in USA Today.
Outside economists have warned that tariffs could slow the global economy, raise the risk of recession, and increase living costs for the average U.S. family by thousands of dollars. Businesses have complained that Trump’s barrage of threats has made it difficult to plan their operations.
“I can’t recall a situation where the stakes were this high and yet the outcome was so unpredictable,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “The devil is going to be in the details and nobody knows the details.”
Across sectors, from cars to ocean freight shipping, luxury goods and beyond, business leaders waited to see what would hit them.
“You cannot make important decisions on your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing,” said Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight pricing platform Xeneta.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has been careful to avoid criticising Trump, warned tariffs would hit Italian companies hard and also be “unfair” on American consumers.
“This is the reason why I remain convinced that we must work to avert a trade war,” she said. France expected a “pretty powerful” hit that could see tariffs in the range of 20-25%.
In just over 10 weeks since taking office, Trump has imposed new 20% duties on all imports from China over fentanyl and fully restored 25% duties on steel and aluminum, extending these to nearly $150 billion worth of downstream products. A month-long reprieve for most Canadian and Mexican goods from his 25% fentanyl-related tariffs is due to expire on Wednesday.
Administration officials have said that all of Trump’s tariffs stack atop prior rates, so a Mexican-built car previously charged 2.5% to enter the U.S. would be subject to both the fentanyl tariffs and the autos sectoral tariffs, for a 52.5% tariff rate — plus any reciprocal tariff Trump may impose on Mexican goods.
Growing uncertainty over the duties is eroding investor, consumer and business confidence. Global stocks retreated on Wednesday, while safe-haven gold held near record highs.
The dollar and other currencies held in tight ranges on Wednesday as traders awaited details of Trump’s plans. Tariff concerns have already slowed manufacturing activity across the globe, while also spurring sales of autos and other imported products as consumers rush to make purchases before prices rise.
Trading partners including Australia, the European Union, Canada and Mexico have vowed to respond with retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures, even as some have sought to negotiate with the White House.
Trump has argued that American workers and manufacturers have been hurt for decades by free-trade deals that have lowered barriers to global commerce and fueled the growth of a $3 trillion U.S. market for imported goods, leading to a goods trade deficit that exceeds $1.2 trillion.
But a 20% tariff on top of those already imposed would cost the average U.S. household at least $3,400, according to the Yale University Budget Lab.
Macy’s Inc. is clawing back more than $600,000 in cash bonuses from executives after an accounting scandal led to inflated pay.
Bloomberg
The department-store operator tied executives’ cash bonuses to an earnings metric that turned out to be overstated by around $81 million in 2023, Macy’s said in a securities filing on Tuesday evening.
That meant Macy’s overpaid executives by $609,613 as of the end of 2024, the company said. Some of that has already been clawed back, so the outstanding amount stood at $352,093 as of April 1, it added.
The company’s compensation committee said it “will seek to recover the remaining amount of the erroneously awarded compensation” from executives. Macy’s didn’t name the people whose bonuses will be affected. A spokesperson declined to comment.
Macy’s also said Tuesday its chief financial officer was leaving. The company said it was replacing him with his counterpart at Capri Holdings Ltd., Thomas J. Edwards, and said the move was part of its plan to return to long-term, profitable growth.
Under US Securities and Exchange Commission rules, public companies are required to assess whether they need to revoke corporate bonuses if they uncover accounting errors that miscalculated past profits.
In November, Macy’s delayed an earnings release and then issued a lower profit outlook after an investigation found an employee intentionally hid more than $150 million in delivery expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the third quarter of 2024.
The probe didn’t uncover evidence of missing cash or unpaid vendors and instead pointed to accounting errors by the former employee, who also falsified documents to hide the problem, according to the company.
U.S. President Donald Trump‘s new tariff plan has the ocean shipping industry on edge as he stokes a trade war destined to stanch transport demand and send companies scrambling to manage the fallout.
Reuters
The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce “reciprocal tariffs” targeting nations that have duties on U.S. goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada – the top U.S. trading partners – as well as on goods including steel and autos.
Major global container shipping firms like MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd transport towering piles of colorful boxes stuffed with goods for U.S. customers like Walmart, Target and Home Depot.
They are giants in the roughly $14 trillion a year ocean shipping industry that handles about 80% of global trade. They are also reliant on companies that are getting whipsawed by Trump’s escalating, on-and-off tariffs.
“The implementation of stacked tariffs has led to mounting confusion,” said Blake Harden, the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s vice president of international trade. “Companies have not had adequate time, certainty, and guidance they need to incorporate these changes and comply.”
Trump has invoked emergency powers to swiftly add, and occasionally retract and reinstate, tariffs during his second term in office.
“Importers don’t know from one week to the next what their duty cost is going to be,” said Kit Johnson, director of import compliance at John S. James Co., a U.S. customs broker and freight forwarder whose customers include automakers and producers of chemicals, machinery, medical devices and textiles.
Johnson has seen an uptick in customers opting for high-cost air shipping for autos and other goods that normally would travel by sea, in a bid to front-run new tariffs.
U.S. container imports have also surged to record levels in recent months as companies rushed in toys, furniture, bedding, machinery and parts from China, the world’s No. 1 exporter, to avoid Trump’s tariffs.
As that threat expanded, other vessel types and airplanes have been called to help U.S. firms stockpile cars from Europe and the Far East, cheese and wine from Italy, and prescription drugs from Ireland.
The average on-demand spot rate to ship a 40-foot container on the key Far East to U.S. West Coast route was $2,844 on Tuesday, a one-day gain of almost 16%, according to data from freight pricing platform Xeneta. That rate is still lower than a year ago, when the risk of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes was a new phenomenon and trading was not distorted by importers seeking to avoid tariffs.
But companies’ knee-jerk, front-loading strategy is just a temporary fix – especially as retaliatory tariffs stoke trade wars that could suffocate demand.
The tariff tiffs come as ocean shipping faces greater potential peril from a separate Trump plan to impose hefty U.S. port call fees on ships with links to China.
Foes of that proposal say it could decimate domestic agriculture and energy exporters that Trump promised to support. They also warn it could reignite pandemic-level chaos at ports by prompting vessel operators to avoid fees by swamping some ports with cargo while starving others.
Layering that on top of tariffs has paralyzed decision-making around how to source, sell and move goods.
“You cannot make important decisions on your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing,” said Peter Sand, Xeneta’s chief analyst.
One Greek container shipping executive, who requested anonymity due to fear that public comments could negatively affect business, said customers were not loading cargo for fear that a large levy might be imposed at the end of a lengthy ocean voyage.
“We are in a wait-and-see mode.”
Experts have begun counting the harm from Trump’s tariffs.
Anxiety over the levies already has helped derail a turnaround in the U.S. manufacturing sector that relies on imports and exports and drives significant demand for transportation, according to responses to the Institute for Supply Management survey.
S&P Global Market Intelligence expects the volume of U.S. ocean container freight imports to drop 0.7% in 2025.
“While there is still strong growth in the first quarter, this is expected to reverse in the second quarter of 2025 as tariffs bite,” S&P said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is scrambling to reprogram and test systems needed to calculate and collect new tariffs. The Trump administration in February delayed a plan to begin collecting duties on direct sales of low-value goods from retailers like Temu and Shein after packages piled up at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“The more of these tariffs we have, the harder it’s going to be for everyone to keep up,” customs broker Johnson said.
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