A week ahead of her London Fashion Week show, Pauline Dujancourt is juggling two things at once: the adrenaline of presenting her brand on the runway, and the reality of growing the business behind it.
Dujancourt is fresh off delivering a much bigger collection to a bigger selection of retailers. Between FW25 and SS26, the business saw approximately 140% growth in its seasonal turnover (annual turnover is six figures). She landed Net-a-Porter as a stockist for SS26, while Dover Street Market has expanded its range of the brand across global markets including Singapore, LA, Tokyo, London and Paris, after seeing strong sell-through and demand.
Now, the designer is scaling up manufacturing and adapting the merchandising of her collections, which have been centered on hand-crafted knitwear since she founded the brand in 2022 — all without losing that human touch that makes the brand special.
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for the past few months, because we’re increasing production,” Dujancourt says, speaking from a temporary studio in Vauxhall, South London. She moved here after graduating from Paul Smith’s Foundation’s talent incubation program, which offers studio space in Farringdon. While planning the show, the team is also prepping for the move to its new Liverpool Street studio. “We’ve had to squeeze in a lot of things, but I’m really proud of the team that we’ve managed to deliver the production and the collection.”
Dujancourt founded her eponymous label after graduating with a master’s from Central Saint Martins (CSM), specializing in knitwear (the French designer completed her bachelor’s at Paris’s École Duperré). Just two years after launching, she was named a finalist of the LVMH Prize, for its 2024 edition. This season marks her fourth on the London Fashion Week (LFW) schedule.
Pauline Dujancourt.Photo: Courtesy of Pauline Dujancourt
The fashion show has become central to how Dujancourt communicates her brand, which she describes as celebrating womanhood and bringing ancestral craft into a contemporary context. Bestsellers include hand-knitted jumpers, dresses and lingerie-inspired layering pieces; prices typically range from around £300 to £1,700, with special handcrafted dresses rising above £3,000.
“Fashion week has been an opportunity for us to introduce our creative language through the collection, but also through the set, the music, the atmosphere that you create,” she says, describing a theme anchored in craft, community, and shared knowledge (the full narrative will be revealed during the show). “I feel like now it’s more about establishing this and building trust, getting closer and closer to our audience and to the press and buyers as well.”