Paolina Russo’s Innovative Approach to New Business Models

What was the process of working with SKNUPS and Roblox like for you?

Paolina Russo: It was very interesting because SKNUPS is a platform for digital fashion, which is something that we’ve wanted to tap into. We always say that our dream is to make our own video game one day. It just felt like a perfect match and synergy. It was very collaborative in the sense that they were able to grasp what we were interested in, such as a crafts community. It was up to them to reinterpret the Paolina Russo world through the lens of digital fashion and the game they saw fit. I think they really understood who we were as designers.

Lucile Guilmard: For both sides it was like stepping into something new in terms of experimenting. They loved the textures and colors and wanted to see how they could recreate it with their digital assets. It was a step by step understanding of how you merge physical and digital craft.

“When you build a brand, everything that you touch can be designed with the same language, and that’s what we’re trying to do in the game.” – Lucile Guilmard

Paolina: What is cool about doing projects like this is that we’re giving them a challenge as well as them giving us a challenge. The challenge for them was definitely to figure out how to create one of our textures, which they did so well.

Lucile: Then there was this idea that the clothes would exist on actual characters. It was like building a world that would make sense with what we created for last season’s collection, while also mixing it with some previous campaigns. It was really about opening possibilities and extending the world. When you build a brand, everything that you touch can be designed with the same language, and that’s what we’re trying to do in the game.

How much work did it require from your end?

Paolina: We developed these pieces and then it was our job to translate it to them, to give as much technical information as possible. Taking these 360 images and getting very close into our stitches and prints, and providing that sort of technical information for them to analyze. A lot of work on our side was done through the physical sense of making a collection, and then the rest was taken out of our hands and into this digital sphere.

“The process of translating those designs into Roblox was really interesting. SKNUPS has a great team of crafters who created unique skins by using images, prints, and close-ups of the garments; pixel by pixel they turned each piece into a digital version.” – Lucile Guilmard

Did you choose the looks together?

Lucile: Yes. We kind of built this project in the sense that we also wanted to launch it physically with Dover Street Market. They have some exclusive pieces, which are extremely craft-oriented, so we wanted to include those too. It’s the pieces that we developed for the Woolmark project, 100% wool, hand dyed by an artisan called Cavan Jayne in Glasgow. Only DSM stocks it, so we thought it would be perfect to launch this with a partner like them, because it makes a lot of sense.

The process of translating those designs into Roblox was really interesting. SKNUPS has a great team of crafters who created unique skins by using images, prints, and close-ups of the garments; pixel by pixel they turned each piece into a digital version. That 360-degree level of detail was important to make sure that the characters could do everything they needed to within the game, like jumping or running, while wearing Paolina Russo. One thing they did amazingly was translate our core illusion knit technique – a lenticular knitting effect – and the graphics move within the game just like in real life.

“[The digital] is opening doors that in the physical world you can’t necessarily open due to things like location or budget. It’s allowing for pieces that are extremely expensive to also exist in a space where it’s accessible to a different kind of audience.” – Paolina Russo

That’s cool. It makes me think about Balenciaga doing a Fortnite collab and how that essentially gave them an audience of 400 million people, which is pretty wild. Especially if you consider very few people will have access to your limited edition Dover Street pieces.

Paolina: It’s opening doors that in the physical world you can’t necessarily open due to things like location or budget. It’s allowing for pieces that are extremely expensive to also exist in a space where it’s accessible to a different kind of audience. When I was growing up, this would’ve been such an amazing way to engage with fashion and understand it. I didn’t have access to that sort of thing in the suburbs. There weren’t luxury stores around me where I could go and see fashion, and there weren’t that many magazines. But I was playing games, which was an amazing tool for opening imagination.

What did you guys play growing up?

Paolina: The Sims.

Lucile: To be honest, I was even playing a game called My Young Stylist.

Wow, you were early to the fashion game!

Lucile: Too early!

I imagine that at this point in time, you might not find the time to game. 

Paolina: I still make time to game, that’s my downtime.

What do you play?

Paolina: I still play The Sims and Zelda. I like games that have strong storylines and where it almost feels like you’re building the story yourself. I don’t want to play a story, I want to make my own story within the game.

“We are doing this as a long-term partnership and eventually have a few looks per season to exist digitally. It’s opening up to a completely different audience that we don’t have.” – Lucile Guilmard

In what ways do you see partnerships like this as beneficial to your overall marketing strategy? You’ll be doing drops for a number of seasons to come, right?

Lucile: We are doing this as a long-term partnership and eventually have a few looks per season to exist digitally. It’s opening up to a completely different audience that we don’t have. We are part of the audience because we play video games ourselves, but video gamers are not the audience that we generally speak to with our brand yet. It’s so much fun to do it this way.

Paolina: It’s a direct engagement, and it’s also bringing a little bit of our fantasy to life. I think also the relationship goes two ways. I hope that through this sort of marketing and partnerships, not only are we allowing people to become part of the Paolina Russo world who are not necessarily directly involved in fashion, but it’s also interesting that people within fashion start engaging with this digital world as well.

Fashion is pretty late to the game. 

Paolina: A lot of fashion designers I know are video gamers! I think it’s especially relatable for those designers whose upbringing may have come from not having access to fashion, but only through video games or cartoons like manga. It’s a level of escapism and fantasy that we can all relate to.

“We were talking about how we’re just in our studio bubble, and maybe also within a bubble of fashion. We have our own community, but the communities within gaming are massive, especially the ones where you can interact with each other.” – Paolina Russo

What was something crucial you learned during this journey that you had no idea about before?

Paolina: It demystified a bit what it takes to make garments digitally, and maybe also vice versa. Because they had to walk through our garments in a 360 way so that they could understand how it was constructed. So they went through the design and making process almost in the same way we did. I think also what was surprising is how big the reach is, it’s millions. It’s a really insane thing to do. We were talking about how we’re just in our studio bubble, and maybe also within a bubble of fashion. We have our own community, but the communities within gaming are massive, especially the ones where you can interact with each other.

“There’s also a lot of non-traditional ways for us to generate revenue which relates very naturally to the world of our brand. I think it’s exciting.” – Paolina Russo

How does all of this fit into your larger business model and strategy?

Paolina: Being an emerging brand, we’re going through the motions of being involved in wholesale and eventually starting our own e-commerce. But I feel there’s also a lot of non-traditional ways for us to generate revenue which relates very naturally to the world of our brand. I think it’s exciting. Having a brand now is more than just making clothes. Actually, most of our time revolves around things that aren’t making clothes. What’s also interesting with this project is how we’re balancing between something that’s tangible and something that lives in a virtual space. It’s such a different type of revenue what we can make on Roblox and what we can make in our wholesale channels.

Are you anticipating that this could be a significant revenue source?

Lucile: With time, yes. Today we are introducing ourselves to this world, so we are not expecting the revenue to be immediate. But it’s a great way to eventually grow and have a real revenue come from there.

Paolina: It’s the same as starting your brand; it’s just about doing it in a digital space. We just need to understand it and grow. This is the first chapter of it. Just like we have expectations of seeing our brand grow in a physical space in 5 years, there’s definitely the same intentions with how we can see the brand grow in a digital landscape.