00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 This year's 30 Under 30 Europe list
00:05 features 300 founders and entrepreneurs
00:08 that have raised more than $1 billion
00:10 for companies that are reinventing
00:12 the European entrepreneurial landscape.
00:14 We traveled to London to meet a number of the honorees,
00:18 including Paulina and Lucille, the co-founders of clothing
00:21 brand Paulina Russo.
00:23 Their pieces have been worn by Megan Thee Stallion, Rihanna,
00:26 and more.
00:27 What makes Paulina and Lucille interesting to me
00:29 is their multi-pronged approach to fashion and multiple
00:32 business streams.
00:33 They aren't just creating clothes.
00:35 They're thinking about the future of fashion,
00:37 making digital garments for platforms
00:38 like Roblox and others, all while creating
00:41 avant-garde physical pieces.
00:43 The way that we develop our collections
00:53 is we always start in the factory.
00:58 In terms of the pieces, it's really
01:00 focused on how to innovate those crafts
01:03 and put them into a modern context.
01:05 So for example, these pieces are our signature.
01:09 They're called illusion knitting.
01:11 It has this lenticular effect where images appear and
01:13 disappear as the garment moves.
01:16 And that was inspired by a hand-knitting technique.
01:19 It was super beautiful.
01:20 We were like, how do we take this and make it more detailed?
01:24 How do we industrialize it?
01:26 And that's always a challenge every season, finding new crafts
01:29 to partner with some sort of technology
01:31 and find new ways to do it.
01:34 Our brand really revolves around three pillars
01:40 that are extremely important for us and makes us different.
01:44 Those pillars are sustainability, people,
01:46 and craft.
01:49 We work so closely with our manufacturers
01:51 to come up with solutions to make our garments last
01:54 on the long term and creating clothes that
01:57 will last in someone's wardrobe and eventually be passed down.
02:00 The people who help us developing ideas around us
02:06 are a huge part of the creative process, the way we work.
02:09 Everybody from the person who makes
02:11 to the person who's wearing the clothes,
02:13 everybody has an input with us.
02:15 And we really bring this community along.
02:16 Craft can mean so many things.
02:22 And I think something special about us
02:24 is that we really want to elevate local craft because
02:26 of where we're from, being the suburbs of Toronto in Canada
02:30 for Paulina and the countryside west coast of France for me.
02:35 What we grew up with was local craft.
02:38 You know what your neighbors kind of like paints
02:41 on their table for family dinners?
02:42 You know, that's a craft.
02:43 All those crafts that makes you really
02:45 feel connected on a very secret level almost
02:49 is really what we cherish.
02:50 And we really want to highlight.
02:53 We have three pricing points in our range.
02:58 We have things that are more entry price points.
03:00 So they'll range between like 80 pounds to 220 pounds.
03:05 That's just like easier things to get.
03:07 Like it'll be our Lycra or swimwear or some
03:10 of our knitted accessories.
03:12 And then we have a more like wider middle range
03:15 of things that are between like 220 and like 600
03:19 that are the creative knit pieces.
03:21 For example, like our knitted corset pieces.
03:23 These are our best sellers.
03:25 They're like this mixture between something
03:27 that looks very, you know, like of course is very restricted,
03:30 but actually it's extremely comfy.
03:33 And then we have things that are more like artisan.
03:36 And that's between like 600 to 1,000.
03:39 But we really make sure that we kind of never
03:42 go over 1,000 pounds.
03:44 You know, if you're like a student and you love the brand
03:46 or you're a fan, you could get something and still
03:49 be a part of the world.
03:50 We have had issues with complete copycats of the clothes.
03:55 We had no idea, but we started getting emails
03:58 from like people who follow the brand.
04:00 But like they saw our pieces like being replicated
04:03 in a store in China.
04:04 And there's only so much you can do with things like that.
04:07 Like if someone does that, like you can report it.
04:10 But we're not also in the position to like see someone.
04:15 And in a way, it's very flattering.
04:17 You're like, oh, thank you so much.
04:18 You like the work so much that you would want to do the same.
04:21 That's we really appreciate.
04:24 Personally for us, we have so many products
04:26 that we're continuing to put out there
04:29 that like it doesn't like stifle our creativity
04:32 or stifle what we're doing.
04:34 Yeah, and also in like total honesty,
04:36 there's like some techniques that are really core to us
04:39 that are really hard to replicate.
04:41 A copy can exist, but the original is really kind of
04:44 like a copy of the original.
04:45 The original is really kind of like you can recognize it.
04:49 ♪
04:55 Lucille and I met when we were studying
04:59 at Central Saint Martins.
05:01 I was studying fashion design with a specialism in knitwear
05:03 and Lucille was studying fashion design
05:05 with a specialism in womenswear.
05:08 After both of us graduated from Central Saint Martins,
05:11 we were both looking for studios.
05:12 We both knew this woman called Olya who runs One Granary,
05:17 which is a fashion magazine/support system
05:20 for emerging designers and students.
05:23 And she put us in contact with each other like,
05:25 "Hey, you guys should share a studio."
05:27 And that's where we properly met.
05:29 ♪
05:31 We were in the same space for like two, three months,
05:34 really observing what she does,
05:35 all the people working with her, her team.
05:38 But I was working on my own things.
05:39 I was in one corner doing my thing
05:41 and she was in the other corner doing her thing.
05:43 And I think we always were kind of looking at each other like,
05:45 "I really like what she's doing.
05:47 Like, this is really interesting."
05:48 ♪
05:50 And then one day I remember not being able to sleep
05:52 and thinking like, "I don't know how to really express this,
05:55 but I know that we should work together."
05:58 I just had this epiphany.
06:00 I woke up being like, "I feel like if we work together,
06:04 we could take over the world."
06:05 But how do you tell someone that?
06:08 So I came in that day acting really weird.
06:10 I didn't know how to bring it up.
06:12 She was acting extremely weird.
06:14 Instead of doing my work, I was cleaning and stuff.
06:16 So I'm like, "Why is she cleaning the studio?
06:18 Something is going on."
06:20 I'm just going to step right in.
06:22 "Hey, have you ever thought of kind of like expanding
06:25 and doing this with someone?"
06:27 And she straight up got it.
06:28 She was like, "Yeah, do you want to do this with me?"
06:30 I'm like, "Yeah, cool. Nice."
06:32 It was just this true like synergy type of moment
06:35 where we were both thinking the same thing,
06:37 but we didn't realize.
06:38 And so she spoke it into reality.
06:40 And then I was like, "Yeah, let's do it."
06:42 When we decided to work on the brand together,
06:47 the brand had already started.
06:48 I started on my own.
06:49 I was like a poor student.
06:52 I didn't have any money to start a label.
06:54 And actually when I was in school,
06:56 I had no intentions of starting a business.
06:58 I didn't know what I was going to do after school.
07:00 But when I was on my BA at Central Saint Martins,
07:03 my final collection that I presented
07:05 won the L'Oreal Prize for creative talent.
07:09 And there was prize money,
07:11 but also it was like huge press
07:13 for the work that I was doing.
07:15 Like the work went on to then
07:17 be on the cover of "Dazed" magazine.
07:19 I had this corset that I'd made out of sneakers
07:23 that I used to wear when I was growing up in Canada.
07:27 And I had crocheted them together
07:29 to create this sneaker corset.
07:30 And that was worn on the cover of "Dazed" by Solange Knowles.
07:33 So there was a lot of this like press coming in
07:35 and prizes.
07:37 And when I went on to study on my master's
07:39 and I did that all through scholarships
07:41 from the British Fashion Council.
07:43 I got contacted by Adidas
07:45 and they wanted to do a collaboration
07:47 between me and them.
07:49 And at that point I didn't have a brand.
07:50 So I was like, okay, so I guess I'm starting a brand
07:53 and this brand is gonna collaborate with Adidas.
07:56 And from the money that I received from that collaboration,
07:59 that was the initial capital to start the business.
08:02 (soft music)
08:05 So loads of people call me Alex.
08:09 My full name is Paulina Alexandra Russo.
08:11 So for me, like Paulina Russo is its own entity.
08:15 Like we are Paulina Russo.
08:16 - I mean, I like how you can see like this one
08:30 and those two points quite clearly.
08:32 - This is working.
08:32 - This is more hairy, but not as like napkinny as before.
08:36 - Napkin out.
08:38 I also think that we should try to find a way
08:41 to like have this.
08:43 Yeah.
08:44 - I think the color would be really nice.
08:46 - Then it would be really nice.
08:47 Yeah, definitely.
08:48 I love the way it draws those lines.
08:50 It's very like, it has such a texture.
08:53 I mean, this draws nicely with the body, the graphic.
08:59 - Our first ever like clients were Essence
09:03 who are also Canadian.
09:04 And then we went on to like expand our like clients
09:09 of like wholesale and retailers that we were working with.
09:13 We got picked up by Dover Sheet Market in London.
09:16 And then we got contacted by a company called Skin Ups
09:19 in London who connect fashion with gaming.
09:23 And that's how we began our collaboration through Roblox,
09:27 bringing Paulina Russo into Roblox.
09:30 - I mean, there's many different ways
09:35 that capital can come in, right?
09:37 That's another like revenue stream to explore
09:40 because it's a whole new community.
09:41 It's people who are interested in fashion,
09:43 but wouldn't necessarily wear it the way that we do
09:46 in the streets, but they would wear it even more
09:48 in like the world that they create online.
09:51 So there's like many different ways like this
09:53 that forms the capital that we have
09:55 that permits us to develop and exist.
09:58 - There's this alternative revenue
10:00 that we wanted to explore.
10:02 And it's something that we're gonna continue
10:03 to explore with the brand.
10:05 And then from there, after that sales season,
10:09 we did our first show during Copenhagen Fashion Week
10:13 because we won the Zalando Visionary Award,
10:16 which is an award that champions brands
10:19 that really look after sustainability,
10:21 community and collaboration, as well as creativity.
10:26 And from that show, we got to meet Nordstrom
10:29 and they were really, apparently, I mean,
10:31 they said to us that they'd been watching the brand
10:33 for a while.
10:34 And after that show, they decided to work with us
10:37 and stock our clothes.
10:39 - Paulina and Lucille were on our radar
10:44 because when we took a look at their collection,
10:46 it looked unique and like something really special.
10:49 We were really validated in our enthusiasm for the brand
10:52 after wrapping up Copenhagen Fashion Week
10:54 and seeing the energy of the show and the clothes in person.
10:58 The purpose of kind of this concept shop
11:02 is to be a place of discovery and inspiration
11:05 and inclusivity.
11:06 So we very often work with young designers
11:09 who are newer and emerging.
11:11 And then we love being the platform for Paulina and Lucille
11:14 as they kind of strategically grow their business as well.
11:17 They really practice what they preach,
11:18 like they are living and breathing
11:20 this positive impact fashion.
11:22 And I think that really resonates with our customers.
11:25 So we will continue this partnership
11:27 and we're looking forward to kind of renew
11:28 the inventory season over season.
11:30 - In terms of financial, we are completely independent
11:42 and that's something that's really important for us.
11:44 We run our own showroom, for example, even press.
11:47 We do everything in the house.
11:49 It's extremely hard for us.
11:51 It's like we understand and we're learning as it goes,
11:56 but financially being an emerging designer
11:57 faces a lot of difficulties in the sense that like
12:01 budget is really complicated to go around
12:03 and we need a lot of support.
12:04 But we understand that if we didn't have
12:06 that system of support, it would be even harder.
12:09 - We have done two shows now on Copenhagen Fashion Week.
12:14 And the first time we did it is the first time
12:16 we've ever done anything like that.
12:18 There were so many people involved.
12:19 You can't imagine like at least like a hundred people.
12:23 And also with the clothes, there's at least a hundred
12:25 people behind the clothes, 'cause it's not just us.
12:27 It was our collaborators, our manufacturers,
12:30 all the people who work at the factory
12:32 all worked on this together.
12:34 - Designing a collection for a lookbook
12:38 and a storytelling and stores is one thing.
12:40 Designing a collection with the aim of showing it
12:43 down the runway for the first time
12:46 is another story.
12:47 - From Copenhagen, we met some people from the Federation
12:52 for Paris Fashion Week.
12:53 - We are going to Paris actually today
12:58 because we are part of the showroom called Sphere.
13:01 It's a showroom organized by
13:03 La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.
13:05 It is a group showroom.
13:06 So we are part of a group, six designers.
13:11 So we're gonna have the opportunity to talk a lot
13:14 about what we do to new people again.
13:16 - We've had many meetings and we are really putting out
13:22 the intentions and feelers to take the brand
13:25 internationally and do a show in a different country.
13:28 So it's so amazing to do the show in a place like Korea
13:32 or even go to Canada or something,
13:35 like to bring the work somewhere where we also
13:38 connect with the community there.
13:41 It's a dream.
13:43 (upbeat music)
13:46 - We have been in situations before where like our age
13:49 has hindered us, but I think in for the better
13:51 because we are really young and we are starting out
13:55 in a business like with age also comes experience
13:59 and knowledge and time and mistakes.
14:01 So we have been in situations where they're like,
14:03 oh, like, you know, we really love you for this job.
14:06 We really love you for this thing,
14:08 but it's two years too soon.
14:09 Or like, you're a little bit too young now,
14:11 but like in two years, yes.
14:13 And actually like really appreciate that sort of feedback
14:15 because like, we also believe the same.
14:17 I am way smarter and way better at my job now
14:21 than I was two years ago or five years ago.
14:24 So I hope that in like two to five years again,
14:27 that like I grow and we grow as like a brand.
14:30 I would say like the biggest hurdle that we faced
14:35 was really in the beginning,
14:36 because when the brand started,
14:39 we had just come from doing this collaboration with Adidas.
14:42 So there was already a perception about the brand
14:43 that we were really established.
14:45 We are like freshly students and starting a brand
14:49 and starting a business.
14:51 So yeah, really trying to like explain to people
14:53 in the beginning, like, no, we're just starting.
14:55 This is just the beginning.
14:57 I think when you're a young entrepreneur,
15:01 it takes a lot more convincing for people
15:05 like to take you seriously or to think that you're serious
15:07 about the work that you're doing.
15:09 There's also like the sense of like resilience, you know,
15:12 I actually think we're like extremely resilient people
15:15 and we work really hard
15:16 and I have seen it surprise people a lot around us.
15:19 So it'd be like, it's a bit of a myth, you know,
15:22 we're just like, oh, that generation
15:23 or like that kind of work doesn't go
15:26 with those kinds of like qualities in people.
15:28 But I think we're proving that wrong.
15:31 (upbeat music)
15:33 - In 2023, we found out that we were nominated
15:43 for the LVMH Prize.
15:45 In the final round, you have to present your brand
15:47 in front of the creative directors of LVMH.
15:50 So that's Marc Jacobs and like Nicola Ghesquière,
15:53 Kim Jones and Bernard Arnault.
15:56 So it's pretty intimidating
15:58 and you only have five minutes to pitch your brand.
16:01 - In terms of opportunity, being an emerging brand
16:05 associated to the LVMH Prize is incredibly valuable
16:08 to like the industry,
16:10 which really helped us developing and reaching out
16:14 to even more people and expand on what we wanna do
16:17 on a designing level, on a press level,
16:19 on all those kinds of angles that you need
16:22 as an emerging brand.
16:24 - A lot of people who know about us now,
16:25 I think they found us through the LVMH Prize.
16:28 A lot of celebrities who wear the clothes,
16:31 either they buy the clothes and we don't even know about it.
16:35 And we just find out because someone tags us
16:38 on social media wearing Paulina Russo.
16:40 For example, when New Jeans, this Korean pop group,
16:45 wore our clothes for their very first music video,
16:47 we had no clue.
16:49 We saw it actually in the music video
16:52 and they have gone on to wear more pieces.
16:55 When it comes to like other celebrities, we do loans.
16:58 So we'll loan pieces or we'll make custom pieces for them.
17:01 We worked with Doja Cat for her Scarlet tour
17:05 and she wore a lot of the Lycra,
17:07 these like iconic Lycra pieces
17:09 from her fall/winter '23 collection.
17:11 - This year over Christmas, we received a notification
17:16 that we've been tagged on a picture.
17:17 We opened the picture and Rosalia is wearing one of our top.
17:21 That was best Christmas present.
17:24 - At the moment we work with about nine retailers
17:27 around the world.
17:28 And so their customer base is endless.
17:32 But for us, we can only really interact with people
17:36 like online or who we've met in stores before.
17:40 That's the point of us starting e-coms
17:41 is that we want to have a more direct connection
17:43 with our community that's outside of just social media.
17:46 - We're scaling up in terms of production,
17:50 which can be challenging for us
17:51 because obviously we are at the beginning of what we do
17:55 and what our partnerships are like building up.
17:58 So as we're expanding,
17:59 we also need to sort of like work around quantities,
18:02 which can be really challenging for designers
18:06 because manufacturers, they have minimum orders quantity.
18:10 But we're very lucky
18:11 because we work with them extremely closely.
18:14 Then we are able to come up to agreements
18:17 and really work around those difficulties.
18:19 What would it take for us to sell the brand?
18:21 I don't even know.
18:22 What we're building is so like precious, important.
18:25 And so like for the long run,
18:27 selling it is absolutely not the goal.
18:30 Growing the team and having people come in
18:32 and really like work with us is definitely a yes.
18:35 Just in terms of like selling it
18:36 and leaving it to others, it's a no.
18:39 (upbeat music)
18:42 (laughing)
18:45 (bell ringing)
18:47 (upbeat music)
18:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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