Fashion in Milan

The twin designers behind the Dsquared label, Dean and Dan Caten, have a reputation for staging theatrical fashion shows, so the facade of an Italian portside palazzo at yesterday's show was not entirely a surprise.

Dsquared is aimed at a younger audience with an eye for the frivolous. Their main obsession for next summer is yacht club chic.

Double-breasted navy tailored jackets with shiny gold buttons were worn with white shorts. Preppy shirts, big hair and bourgeois gold jewellery hammered home the look. For all the pomp of the show, the label did fulfil its design brief.

Earlier, the Sportmax show, also aimed at a younger customer, could not have taken a more different approach. The label, the diffusion line of MaxMara, kept its presentation simple.

With a collection filled with stripes, prints and colours of tobacco, yellow and purple, there was a nod to the 60s, which has been a theme in Milan. Models wearing bandanas with flowers attached paraded a selection of clothes, which - though wearable - lacked focus, and in the end, failed to excite.