PARIS — Alexandra Golovanoff, the French former television presenter turned knitwear designer, is known for her perfect cashmere sweaters. Now she’s launching what she hopes will be the perfect handbag.

For her first foray into leather goods, she turned for advice to her longtime friend, Pierre Hardy. That lunchtime conversation ended up giving birth to their first collaboration. “It was time we had a baby,” Golovanoff joked.

The brief for the Alex bag, which lands in stores on Tuesday, was simple. “I am the brief,” she deadpanned. 

An accessories fiend who got to know Hardy through his shoe designs for Balenciaga in the early 2000s, under Nicolas Ghesquière, the keen cyclist was searching for a boxy yet supple style that would become a go-to for all occasions. 

Hardy came up with a medium-sized carryall style with two top handles, a zip, and interchangeable leather and canvas straps. Made of double-faced calf leather — one side grained, the other smooth — it can be carried over the arm or crossbody, fits an iPad and has an external phone pocket.

“There was no great strategy behind it; we didn’t come up with a five-year plan or anything. It all happened really organically and spontaneously,” Hardy said.

Golovanoff did not want an “It” bag, so Hardy made it the opposite of the Alpha, the signature style he launched in 2006, which remains his bestseller. 

“One is rigid, the other is soft; one is multicolored, the other completely monochrome; one’s a flap bag, the other has a zipper,” he reeled off. “For me, as a designer, that was what made it a fun, interesting and exciting challenge.”

Used to designing with a generic female customer in mind, he enjoyed the back-and-forth of creating the bag of Golovanoff’s dreams. “It’s almost like made-to-measure or couture,” he mused.

The Alex comes in black, burgundy and camel, and features minimal hardware. “It’s a fairly neutral object, and the idea is that the girl who wears it can make it her own,” Hardy said.

Golovanoff is not above switching straps to customize her handbags, but she draws the line at Labubus or other fashionable tchotchkes. “I wanted a bag that would keep its shape but that’s light, because it ends up weighing you down otherwise. Every gram counts,” she said.

She is, however, fixated with gluing Red Cross stickers on her bags, including a vintage black Hermès. “I sent it to the Hermès Spa and they told me I was nuts to put a sticker on it. I apologized and they took it off and cleaned it — and poof, I put another one right back,” she said.

“Glue and solvents are very bad for leather. That is a major no-no,” Hardy countered in gentle reprimand. Still, it’s probably that kind of nonchalance that makes Golovanoff a typical Parisian, he said. 

“They are quite demanding and knowledgeable about what makes a beautiful object,” he mused. “And then, because they’re very familiar with this French heritage, they like to treat those objects quite casually.” 

A case in point: Golovanoff suggested that the strap of her bag doubles nicely as a belt. 

The Alex, which is made in Morocco, is available in their respective stores and e-commerce sites, priced at 1,250 euros, or $1,450. At a time when luxury consumers are questioning inflated price tags, Golovanoff said it was important to offer good value for money. 

“We’ve never done sales and we don’t want to, which allows us to have an honest and fair price year-round,” she said.

Investing in a good handbag is another secret to French girl style, she suggested. “If you have a good bag and good shoes, and your nails are not gross, then the rest doesn’t matter so much,” she said.