Alexandra Golovanoff - THE EYE AND THE HAND: A WARDROBE OF THOUGHTFUL DETAILS

Less pilling, greater durability. A knit that retains its shape without ‘sagging.’ A summer collection designed for urban heatwaves, featuring airy dresses that slip on like T-shirts, a gentle breeze against the skin. Sheer fabrics, layered looks, ultra-fine poplin. Elegance in simplicity that knows how to play with light.  Like a shot of ginger or a garden of cream-coloured roses, like the way she sits cross-legged in the winter garden at Costes, for which she has designed a chocolate-coloured capsule collection: a cap, an oversized jumper that isn’t gigantic. 

Alexandra Golovanoff, true to herself, gives her creations first names: Milan, Cecile, Lou… “I can no longer imagine being constricted by an outfit; but nor do I want to hide in shapeless clothing,” she says. Never a disguise, no posturing. A cashmere-like personality, much like her designs which grow more beautiful and develop a patina with time, And now, Alexandra Golovanoff is celebrating her brand’s tenth anniversary. Grounded, yet weightless. Structured, yet not rigid, in constant motion, much like her clothes as well as her spaces – spacious, light-filled. “Designed to make you feel at ease,” she says, adding, “A circle with a hand’s touch.” She is the author of a book in her own colours: Le goût le goût le goût, “taste taste taste,” as she told Presses de la Cité in 2023.

With two shops in Paris, 40 worldwide, and a redesigned logo, the brand is reinventing itself through a wardrobe conceived as a sincere expression of a way of life, of feeling, and of celebrating beauty, goodness and justice – from rue de Varenne to rue du Mont-Thabor. Beyond knitwear is the natural evolution of a full wardrobe, featuring trousers, jackets and coats (including the magnificent Marlon, in lambskin), jeans and corduroy made in Paris, with irregular ribs, a make-up range and touches of orange and lemon, ‘like Stabilo highlighters, to energise’, which have come to seamlessly and quietly reinvent the DNA of a cosmopolitan Parisian with Russian, Ukrainian and Breton roots. 

Drawn to Sonia Rykiel’s Left Bank and the Haussmannian Right Bank, she gently cultivates the art of paradoxes, the softness of boudoirs and the uniforms of boarding school pupils, the cool of oversized fits and the chicness of well-proportioned designs, that of beautiful fabrics, featuring cashmere yarns from the Loro Piana mill. And onward to the natural progression of her story: activewear that defies being reduced to a mere outfit. The daughter of antique dealers, Alexandra Golovanoff called upon her sister, an architect, and her daughter Mila Noli, who is now involved in the brand’s management and development. A taste, a style: ‘I’ve changed careers my whole life,’ says the woman who speaks with humility, drawing on everything she learned as a journalist, and everything her clients share with her. This is a kind of bond that goes beyond a commercial relationship. This is her, at the heart of an ecosystem that prioritises quality, connection, and respect for others as much as for oneself. With the in-house Golorama range, you can choose cashmere to match your eye colour. Her motto? She borrows it from André Gide, in The Counterfeiters: “Follow your inclination, provided it leads upwards.”

21 rue du Mont Thabor 75001. https://www.alexandragolovanoff.com

This interview has been lightly edited. 

L.B