When Paolina Russo and Lucile Guilmard met by a studio-share association, neither may have anticipated that their Central Saint Martins schooling—and internships at Marc Jacobs (for Lucile) and Margiela (for Paolina)—would coalesce so rapidly into considered one of London’s most intriguing younger labels. After launching in 2021, the duo landed not one however three high-profile showcases simply 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 ladies,” Russo provided over Zoom, recent off the launch at Dover Avenue Market in London and an Asian tour that included ComplexCon displays in Hong Kong and a detour by way of Seoul.
The duo described their fall outing—entitled The Ballad of Ramona Boulevard—as fragments from a contemporary suburban fable, populated by warrior princesses wrapped in a vortex of protecting purple, guided by a Tamagotchi-turned-compass in gold and crystals. A mashup of medieval references, corsetry codes and “2010s Tumblr aesthetics,” the gathering spoke to a necessity for a sure type of armor as a small-town lady (as they describe themselves) makes her approach by what looks like end-of-the-world occasions.
Knitwear is the model’s technical stronghold, and a number of other of the season’s greatest items revisited conventional strategies, for instance a cable knit subverted right into a fitted corset form minimize excessive on the perimeters, or distinctive lenticular prints on phantasm knits that bridged hand-craftsmanship with mechanical manufacturing processes. Additional alongside, gold foil-burnished materials and jeans, together with a sassy pleated miniskirt or saggy denims, referenced heraldry, whereas light-weight phantasm tulle prints and jeans —fashionable with Ok-pop stars and followers —featured the duo’s scribbled hearts and stars.
Russo and Guilmard are dedicated to collaborations in every little thing they do, from the hand-sprayed, laser-etched denims produced with a producer in Portugal—a time-intensive approach that makes use of round water techniques to scale back environmental impression—to a partnership with Converse that this season produced knee-high sneaker boots and wedges dyed to match these soft-warrior prints. Even their digital extensions lean in on artisanal integrity; in creating digital doppelgangers for Roblox, the designers found that the intensive handwork required IRL carried over to equally painstaking processes within the digital realm.
“We love that pendulum,” Russo mentioned, referring to the parallel between bodily and digital artistic worlds. “We wish to encourage individuals to attach with the method behind the design.” Judging by the model’s momentum, she and Guilmard appear to have discovered their path.
