Paolina Russo SS24 at Copenhagen Fashion Week

Paolina Russo SS24 Spring/Summer 2024 Collection at Copenhagen Fashion Week

MONOLITHICS

Monolithics — Zalando Visionary Award winner Paolina Russo’s SS24 collection — brings the London-based label to Copenhagen Fashion Week to present its first runway show. A contemplation of the passage of time and the marks that the brand’s warrior heroine’s protagonist has left on the world on her pilgrimage through it, rune-carved, rainbow floors evoke the suburban nostalgia of the carpets found in the heroine’s childhood home, the pastel chalk frescoes she would scrawl on the pavements outside, and prehistoric cave etchings. ‘Standing stones’ made with upcycled bottles simultaneously recall ancient stone circles and futuristic Earthship structures. Meanwhile, the soundtrack she strides to harmonises folkloric flute trills and birdsong with cloud rap and ethereal, new-age trance.

A tension between artefacts from the distant past and those created to be found in the distant future informs graphic motifs and embellishments. This season’s gradient denim pieces – a key expansion of the Paolina Russo universe and created using low water-intensity fabrics and production processes – see the brand’s pastoral floral insignia airbrushed and laser-etched into boleros and miniskirts, jackets and baggy jeans, like high-tech reinterpretations of ancient stone carvings. The result of a direct creative dialogue between Paolina Russo’s co-creative directors and the technicians at Pizarro – a sustainable denim laundry based in Porto – each piece exemplifies the brand’s desire to challenge and modernise the meaning of craftsmanship, and to allow collaborative experimentation to lead innovation.

Denim’s classic indigo and tobacco tones are echoed in signature warrior knit bodice tops, bralettes, and flounced miniskirts, which also reoccur in mottled earth and polychrome crayon box colourways. A testament to the ecological consciousness at Paolina Russo’s heart, this season’s iterations intentionally lack hardware and are fashioned from unembellished, lightweight cotton monofiber yarns, making them completely biodegradable at the end of their life cycle.

Elsewhere, jersey bermudas, sweatpants, hoodies and tees appear in chalky, sunbleached pastels, decorated with imprints of primordial relics – or the bleached-out memories they’ve left behind. They’re also seen at larger scale across rainbow-hued illusion knit pullovers and miniskirts, and semi-sheer, patchwork column dresses that bring the Paolina Russo warrior woman’s stoic elegance to the fore.

Her athleticism and dynamism are accentuated by breathable technical activewear, lycra separates and one-piece swimsuits; the latter pieces figure in acidic tie-dye hues with neo-tribal riffs on classic sports graphics, echoing the look of 00s surfwear. Bias-cut dresses in printed chiffon extend the brand’s commitment to a practical, comfort-minded approach to dressing, and are designed with easy dressing for a diverse range of body shapes in mind.

Where fastenings do appear, it is as CNC-carved wood-and-metal relics, designed in collaboration with Yuma Burgess, the creative mind behind the show’s Neolithic set. Featuring engravings that echo those seen on the runway’s stone monoliths, they serve as physical tokens for Paolina Russo’s folkloristic-yet-future-minded visual language, appearing as toggles and integrated talismans on druidess-worthy ruched jersey boleros, skirts and dresses. A soundtrack scored by Swedish musical trio Team Rockit offers an aural foil to collection’s core spirit.

The jagged Beyblade medallions that debuted as resin earrings in the brand’s AW22 collection are reinterpreted by Parisian jeweller Colombe d’Humières as metal garment buckles. They’re complemented by a wider jewellery offering that encompasses wispy, spiral earrings, object-strewn shoestring belts, as well as Leo DMB’s charm necklaces.

Imbued with the aura of ancient heirlooms, as well as of eerie relics descended from a far-off future, they epitomise the ethos at Paolina Russo’s heart — the recontextualisation and celebration of yesterday’s craft practices to articulate an aesthetic anchored in tomorrow.

Runway looks