When Paolina Russo and Lucile Guilmard met through a studio-share arrangement, neither could have anticipated that their Central Saint Martins education—and internships at Marc Jacobs (for Lucile) and Margiela (for Paolina)—would coalesce so quickly into one of London’s most intriguing young labels. After launching in 2021, the duo landed not one but three high-profile showcases just two years later: as semifinalists for the LVMH Prize, as finalists for the Woolmark Prize, and a spot on 1 Granary’s mentorship program.
“We’re very solutions-focused women,” Russo offered over Zoom, fresh off the launch at Dover Street Market in London and an Asian tour that included ComplexCon presentations in Hong Kong and a detour via Seoul.
The duo described their fall outing—entitled The Ballad of Ramona Boulevard—as fragments from a modern suburban fable, populated by warrior princesses wrapped in a vortex of protective purple, guided by a Tamagotchi-turned-compass in gold and crystals. A mashup of medieval references, corsetry codes and “2010s Tumblr aesthetics,” the collection spoke to a need for a certain kind of armor as a small-town girl (as they describe themselves) makes her way through what feels like end-of-the-world times.
Knitwear is the brand’s technical stronghold, and several of the season’s best pieces revisited traditional techniques, for example a cable knit subverted into a fitted corset shape cut high on the sides, or distinctive lenticular prints on illusion knits that bridged hand-craftsmanship with mechanical production processes. Further along, gold foil-burnished fabrics and denims, including a sassy pleated miniskirt or baggy jeans, referenced heraldry, while lightweight illusion tulle prints and denims —popular with K-pop stars and fans —featured the duo’s scribbled hearts and stars.
Russo and Guilmard are committed to collaborations in everything they do, from the hand-sprayed, laser-etched jeans produced with a manufacturer in Portugal—a time-intensive technique that uses circular water systems to reduce environmental impact—to a partnership with Converse that this season produced knee-high sneaker boots and wedges dyed to match those soft-warrior prints. Even their digital extensions lean in on artisanal integrity; in creating virtual doppelgangers for Roblox, the designers discovered that the extensive handwork required IRL carried over to equally painstaking processes in the digital realm.
“We love that pendulum,” Russo said, referring to the parallel between physical and virtual creative worlds. “We want to inspire people to connect with the process behind the design.” Judging by the brand’s momentum, she and Guilmard seem to have found their path.
