Over a year ago, in January 2025, Canadian designer Paolina Russo and her co-creative director Lucile Guilmard attended Copenhagen Fashion Week as guests, rather than as a brand showing on schedule. While they were in town, they decided to check out the French embassy and immediately fell in love with its opulent architecture and grandiose furnishings. 

From that moment on, they knew they wanted to return to Copenhagen and host a show inside the embassy, to which the French ambassador swiftly agreed. As a French-native, Guilmard – who Russo met while studying at Central Saint Martins – felt a particular connection to the space, and decided to take the Francophile theme one step further. Enter Oklou: France’s buzziest musician, who enchanted the world last year with her sophomore studio album, Choke Enough. 

At the show, which took place last week in the Danish capital, the French ambassador introduced Russo’s AW26 collection, before welcoming Oklou to the space to perform three tracks from her 2025 album. An Italian journalist sitting opposite me almost exploded with excitement – afterwards, he told me he flew all the way from Milan to Manchester just to see her live last year. He hadn’t expected an intimate gig with his favourite singer during Copenhagen Fashion Week. 

As for the collection, Paolina Russo’s latest offering was inspired by the first school trip you take as a kid. More specifically, a scene in the 2008 teen classic, Wild Child, where the schoolgirls head into town and try on party dresses in the local charity shop, or Rory Gilmore’s outfits and accessories in Gilmore Girls. It was a collection infused with girlhood nostalgia which successfully reconnected us with our inner children, while serenading us with Oklou’s digital lullabies. 

To mark the brand’s grand return to Copenhagen after a two-year hiatus, we catch up with Russo and Guilmard below. 

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the collection? 

Lucile Guilmard: It’s about a school trip. When you get out of your small town for the very first time and you’re with all your classmates. You’re on your way to an adventure. Everything is new. You start collecting coins and stamps, making memories. We had that feeling as we entered the French embassy. 

Where did you go on your first school trips? 

Paolina Russo: I was in grade six, so I must’ve been 11 or 12. It became the meaning of the year for me – I was thinking about what to pack every single day. I think we went to New York as a class. It’s beyond belief that there is a whole town out there that is not where you're from. 

Lucile Guilmard: I went to Catholic school so we took the bus and went to a monastery. I remember collecting magnets. 

Do you still collect things when you go away now? 

Paolina Russo: Yes. I have an insane collection of fridge magnets. 

Lucile Guilmard: I collect two things: postcards and coins. I had a huge heavy wallet full of coins, but I didn’t know what to do with them, so eventually we made jewellery out of them. 

Who do you have in mind when you’re designing a collection? 

Paolina Russo: We design with our team in mind. Everyone is so expressive with the way they dress and everyone looks so good. We have different body types and different interests and that really influences our silhouettes and fabrics. But we’re also inspired by people that we knew growing up and who we thought should exist in our world. 

Lucile Guilmard: We also watched so much Gilmore Girls, so Rory and her evolution through girlhood was really on our minds.

“Choke Enough was our most listened to album of 2025... Oklou flew in specifically for the show and went back to France straight after” – Paolina Russo

If you could go back to school would you? 

Both: No!

Paolina Russo: I grew up in a really small town so the whole time all I wanted to do was leave. All I wanted was to see the rest of the world and be the person I wanted to be, but now I look back and I see that I always was that person. 

Lucile Guilmard: I was really bullied for my looks, so I’m happy to not go back. Now I can be with my people. 

Is there anything you wish you'd been taught that wasn’t on the syllabus? 

Paolina Russo: My taxes! I wish someone taught me how to do my taxes. 

How did Oklou get involved? 

Paolina Russo: We’d been working with Oklou and her stylist Pierre on some of her tour looks last year, so we’d already worked with her a few times. We really resonate with her music and Choke Enough was our most listened to album of 2025, so our PR convinced us to ask her to perform at the show. Luckily, the schedules worked out; she only had that one date free. She flew in specifically for the show and went back to France straight after. 

Lucile Guilmard: There’s a soundtrack for every big moment in your life, and we’ll always remember building that collection and listening to Oklou, so the fact that she came was magical.

Paolina Russo: It was so hard to keep it a secret! We were in absolute tears during the first rehearsal because it was such a dream come true. 

Did she choose the setlist or did you? 

Lucile Guilmard: It was really a collaboration. When we had a call, we suggested “Want To Wanna Come Back” and she suggested the two others [“Take Me By The Hand” and “Choke Enough”] because they fit really nicely together.