Alexandra Golovanoff celebrates 10 years with a place on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule

With a blend of humility and ambition, Alexandra Golovanoff joins the official Paris Fashion Week calendar for the first time as she marks her brand’s 10th anniversary. Founded in 2016, the unisex ready-to-wear label has now entered a pivotal phase in its development, with expanding e-commerce, restructuring, and deliberations over its independence.

This inclusion on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar could enable the brand to reach more potential clients within a structured setting, under the aegis of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. To keep pace with this momentum, the brand is navigating a growth phase that began a year ago with a comprehensive overhaul of its processes. 

“A solid foundation for what lies ahead”

“I like the idea of a structure that’s tightly controlled and very carefully thought through,” she explains, comparing her label to a wall built little by little, brick by brick. “This idea of joining the calendar – I don’t know if I ever dreamt of it. I think I did, even if I didn’t quite dare admit it to myself… I haven’t reached the top of the Eiffel Tower, but I may have made it to the first floor with a solid foundation for what lies ahead.”

Named after its founder, a former fashion journalist, the Alexandra Golovanoff brand did not come about by chance. “I’ve interviewed people all over the world; I’ve covered Fashion Weeks everywhere. I interviewed designers and CEOs in the fashion world for a long time,” recalls the designer. “I also think it was a rather brilliant form of training — all those people who explained their vision, strategy and the challenges to me,” she says with a smile. 

A long-standing project

But after many years spent on screen and at the shows, the former journalist eventually felt adrift in the ceaseless hustle and bustle of Fashion Weeks and lost sight of the pleasure they once brought her. She therefore felt the need to turn the page (just one!) and devote herself to a long-standing project that had been lodged in the back of her mind: launching her own brand. 

“I said to myself: ‘I’m going to do something at my own scale, on my own terms, modestly and with humanity, but I’m going to take the risk of creating something and showing it to people’,” explains Alexandra Golovanoff from her office. It’s no coincidence that she has developed a passion for fashion. “My mum can do everything; she’s always knitted. I’ve always found that quite magical! And my mum has always sewn, and I’ve been cutting out patterns with her my whole life.”

A foot on both banks

Alexandra Golovanoff began her design career with cashmere jumpers, a material she cherishes for its quality and the “impressionistic” depth of its colours. A decade later, and after diversifying, the woman who “still doesn’t know how to make a pattern” has built up a network of manufacturers. “I learnt to draw for the occasion — badly, mind you — but I still manage to express what I want. And then I act it out, I use gestures, I describe what I want to achieve,” says the business owner.

The brand has two standalone boutiques, one on the Left Bank (5, rue de Varenne, 7th arrondissement) and one on the Right Bank (21, rue du Mont Thabor, 1st arrondissement). “As a Parisian, with a foot on both sides of the river, I liked the idea of being present on both banks. Both locations are excellent; rue de Varenne is our historic address, and we’ve been there since 2019,” explains the founder. “It’s our little home, and our French customers — from both the Left and Right Banks, as well as from other regions — have been coming there for a long time. And on the Right Bank, on rue du Mont Thabor, we’re right in the palace-hotel quarter — near rue de Castiglione and Place Vendôme — so the clientele there is much more international.”

Dressing women without fantasies

The brand also relies on around forty multi-brand retailers worldwide, and on a recently revamped e-commerce site, which enables it to ship pieces, by and for women, around the world. This aspect is particularly important to Alexandra Golovanoff. “As we are women, and we dress women, let’s just say we don’t indulge in fantasies about an idealised image of womanhood, unlike designers who are highly conceptual or highly creative, in the sense that they project an idea born of their imagination onto people. I’m much more grounded in reality — and in desire,” explains the designer.
 

Because Alexandra Golovanoff loves stories, she couldn’t resist collaborating with Jean-Louis Costes, founder and owner of the Hôtel Costes, situated a stone’s throw from the boutique on rue de Varenne. After having “crossed paths for 20 years,” in the words of the hotel owner, and then finally becoming friends, Alexandra Golovanoff and Jean-Louis Costes eventually teamed up.

Opening up the share capital?

“With Jean-Louis, there always has to be a reason for doing things; it’s not just for the sake of it,” explains the designer. To find this “reason”, she says she imagined the end of a day for Dua Lipa, finally arriving at the hotel in peace and quiet, and pictured a tracksuit set — the top for the woman, the bottoms for the man — for heading down to the spa. Unveiled at the end of September, the collaborative collection also features a few T-shirts with 3D-printed designs by Teintures de France, incorporating the logos of the two Parisian fashion houses.

Having been solely responsible for the brand’s creative direction since its launch, Alexandra Golovanoff explains that she has since brought only her daughter into her creative team, with whom she exchanges ideas and inspiration. A spirit of independence still governs the brand’s existence: whilst the possibility of an investor taking a stake in the company hangs in the air, nothing has been finalised. “Even though I know it’s all very much about business, I dream of people who would be partners,” says the designer, who wishes to preserve the essence of her approach, whatever the circumstances.