Alexandra Höjer Atelier

PHOTOS Micky Hoyle PRODUCTION Sumien Brink WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo

This utterly stylish fashion boutique on Bree Street revs up the frills and fluffs the asphalt. 

Swedish-born fashion designer Alexandra Höjer has been through a series of beginnings, each one an organic step on from the previous one. She left Sweden at 19, lived in France for a while, then the Caribbean and United States, eventually landing up in Cape Town. 

A few months after setting foot in the Mother City, Alexandra (or Alex) channelled her passion for fashion and beauty by starting her eponymous clothing label, selling her wares on Saturdays at the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill. “At the time it was my only outlet. I stitched every garment myself and went to the market once a week. I never wanted to wholesale or do shows, I just wanted to make beautiful things that I would want to wear,” says the Nordic beauty.

Three years later, it was again time for a fresh start. Based on the success of her range at the market, she opened her first shop on Kloof Street – Alexandra Höjer Boutique. Now three years on, she’s opened up her second shop in the city’s increasingly popular Bree Street, Alexandra Höjer Atelier.

“The range is more exclusive: more high-end fabrics, even more limited quantities, minimalistic with a rocker twist, as well as accessories and lingerie. And menswear as well,” says Alex.

The Bree Street shop experienced a complete reincarnation, as it used to house horse stables. When she and her boyfriend, photographer Micky Hoyle (both of them self-confessed “closet interior designers”), started working on the decor for the shop, they were determined to preserve the building’s beautiful old elements and design around them, incorporating fittings that looked as though they’ve been there for ages. “For example, we took the old wooden doors off, but we kept the old hinges and bolted them into the glass doors,” Alex clarifies.

Alex and Micky spent time visiting markets and junkshops, looking for the right pieces that resonated with them and the space. For instance, on her most recent trip to Stockholm, Alex bought a brass pair of scissors and copper hangers. These ended up becoming one of the shop’s main motifs, on which other elements, like the brass light fittings, were based.

Other items like old-school filing cabinets, lockers and wallpaper all add to the space’s vintage charm, although not of the hand-me-down variety seen at markets and over-stocked shops. This is quite different, high quality certainly, but also curated and lived-in.

One of the most striking features in the shop is Alex’s BMW motorcycle. She bought it and then decided to learn how to ride it. She took a couple of lessons and rode it a few times before she conceded she was definitely not a “biker chick”. With that challenge ticked off her list, she decided to keep the bike as a shop prop, and a fitting one it is.

It’s these personal touches, signifiers of various starts along her journey that give the shop its authentic and soulful feel. Since the space is not just a shop, but also a studio where she works on her designs, alongside her team of part-time patternmakers, cutters and seamstresses, it was important.

The Alexandra Höjer Atelier is the one of the coolest shops to open on Bree Street, which has experienced something of a rejuvenation. With the ever-hipsteriffic Clarke’s Diner, bustling Jason’s Bakery, accessory princesses Missibaba and Kirsten Goss, and unshakable Skinny LaMinx, the street is coming into its own. Not to mention it being a core fixture of the First Thursday events – monthly late-night walkabouts of innercity art and design destinations. 

When asked why she chose Bree, Alex responds: “I love how Bree Street is becoming like a little piece of Europe, with all the shops and cafés. It feels a bit like home.”  

alexandrahojer.com