Britain is definitely under the spotlight these days. Who isn’t bingeing The Crown’s third season? And who doesn’t follow the disquieting Brexit saga, which, I’m afraid to say, has all the makings of a TV melodrama? For better or for worse, Britishness holds a perennial appeal, especially its upper-crust, stiff-upper-lip, romantic-country-estate version. The Caten twins aren’t exempt from the fascination. “We’re Canadian, and Canada being part of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth is actually our queen!” the DSquared2 designers enthused. They’re proud to have once been introduced to Her Majesty at a formal reception at the Canadian Embassy in London.

Yet for all her royal charisma, the queen’s rather dowdy style could hardly qualify as an inspiration for the label’s sexy, bad-boy/bad-girl vibe. And so for pre-fall they tapped into the English passion for sports, extensively exploring the U.K.’s high-low sportswear spectrum. Football culture’s logo-driven garb played against its flip side, the manicured looks of rugby and rowing clubs in boarding schools and quote-unquote good colleges. “We gave it a Canadian twist,” said the Catens, meaning that the outdoorsy polish of British sportswear got a robust coming-in-from-the-cold treatment.

Muscular, protective outerwear was spliced with tailoring for both girls and guys. Chubby puffers were cut from pinstripe wools and loaded with college insignia or slimmed down to more formal-preppy shapes. Elongated and roomy color-block windbreakers and parkas had a vintage flavor, emblazoned with retro-logo patches or padded and lined with Canadian checkered plaids.