Paolina Russo and her co-founder Lucile Guilmard found their show venue in Copenhagen a whole year before their fall 2026 show, long before they even started designing the collection. Thanks to Guilmard’s Parisian roots, the French embassy in the Danish capital got in touch with the pair to see if they would like to hold a show there. “Copenhagen is really close to our hearts because we did our debut show here in spring 2024,” Guilmard said in a preview. For the designers, returning to the city, where they won the Zalando Visionary Award in 2023, for Copenhagen Fashion Week’s 20th anniversary felt like kismet—a testament to the strength of the international fashion community there, given that their brand is based in London.
On entering the 17th-century Thott Palace for the first time, Russo and Guilmard were struck by the ornate interiors—describing the contrast with their brand’s sportswear-infused aesthetic as “super interesting.” The duo used the venue as a starting point, likening the sense of discovery they felt to their memories of going on school trips as kids. “I just remember the very first trip I ever took abroad with my class and feeling like the world was an opportunity,” Russo said.
As guests queued up outside the French embassy to go through security, passports at the ready, there certainly was a sense that the fashion pack was on a big school trip. The theme continued on the runway, where streetcast models—alongside Ella Emhoff, who opened the show, and the French musician, Oklou, who gave a live performance—represented different characters you’d find in a classroom, from the sporty types to the bookish types (Gilmore Girls’s Rory Gilmore was a key source of inspiration this season).
All of this led to a preppier feel to the collection, albeit with a Paolina Russo twist: the brand’s signature illusion knits were turned into numbered polo tops, striped rugby shirts were rendered into tightfitting minidresses, while cropped cardigans featured sewn-on school badges that doubled up as microchips, allowing customers who scan them with their phones to go straight to the brand’s ecommerce site.
While the label’s core pieces—such as the warrior princess corset top and laser-printed denim—remained, the collection marked the brand’s biggest evolution yet, as seen via the introduction of the boho-esque patchwork maxi skirts and Fair Isle-inspired knits. As Russo and Guilmard took their bow alongside the rest of their team, dressed head-to-toe in their designs, Paolina Russo’s appeal became crystal clear: everyone is welcome in their gang
