Dsquared2 Shutters Beverly Hills Flagship
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Dsquared2 is leaving a famously swanky shopping district of Beverly Hills.
The 25-year-old brand has just closed its flagship on Rodeo Drive, a stretch that includes other luxury brands like Celine, Brioni, Saint Laurent, Max Mara and Hermès, among others. A spokesman for the brand confirmed the closure and said the plan, as of now, is to reopen in some capacity in West Hollywood, a Los Angeles neighborhood that has been more popular for newer, trendier brands in recent years. As yet, there is no set opening date for Dsquared2 in the neighborhood, but the spokesman said a “new West Coast strategy…will be announced in due course.”
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In a separate statement on the closure, the brand alluded to “a new strategy of personal shopping and a one-to-one retail experience” for the future L.A. location. The spokesman declined further comment. The now-closed location in Beverly Hills opened in 2015.
The brand’s only other freestanding location in the U.S. is in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, also opened in 2015, when Dsquared2 made its first push into American retail. Although designers and brand founders Dean and Dan Caten are Canadian and went to school in New York, they’ve long worked out of Milan and have most of their retail presence in Europe. Much of their retail strategy involves branded shops within larger retailers, like Harvey Nichols in London and, in the U.S., Saks Fifth Avenue.
The closure of the Beverly Hills flagship marks a pullback from an ambitious retail expansion strategy. In 2015, then chief executive officer Gianfranco Maccarrone said the plan was to open 50 stores before 2020 in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Sales at the time were at 230 million euros. Maccarrone left the company in late 2017. It seems the brand has been operating without any one in the ceo role since then. The Catens, identical twin brothers, said in 2018 that they had taken on more management, along with a team of advisers. That year, the brothers said 2017 revenue had hit 255 million euros, including revenue from licenses for eyewear, children’s wear and underwear.
In January, the Catens held a 25th anniversary coed show in Milan during that city’s Men’s Fashion Week. The show included a huge video backdrop that flashed scenes of the brothers throughout their lives and careers, including mingling with Hollywood stars and recaps of their past fashion shows.
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