A first prom. A black-tie invitation. A wedding. Years later, perhaps, the wedding of a son or daughter.
For more than four decades, Jovani has built its business around the moments people remember and the dresses they wear for them. What began as a family-run eveningwear company in New York’s Garment District has grown into an international fashion house spanning prom, bridal, cocktail, pageant, eveningwear and mother-of-the-bride.
Behind that growth is another generational story. Jovani was founded by Jacob Maslavi and later passed into the hands of his sons, Abraham and Saul Maslavi. As the brothers expanded the company their father started, Jovani was also building relationships with generations of women.
From One Generation to the Next
For Abraham, Jovani was part of life long before it became his career. He and Saul grew up around the family business, watching their father navigate an industry built on relationships, instinct and an understanding of what women wanted to wear. When the brothers eventually took on larger roles, they inherited more than a fashion company. They also inherited the reputation and retailer relationships built alongside it.
Taking over a family business, however, is different from simply preserving it. Shopping moved online, and social media transformed how trends spread. Red carpet images became instantly accessible, and younger consumers began discovering brands on screens rather than on store racks.
The brothers had to determine which parts of Jovani belonged to its history and which needed to evolve. What remained was the company’s focus on occasion dressing. What expanded was the definition of an occasion.
Growing up With the Customer
There is no single Jovani woman. A 17-year-old shopping for prom may respond to a silhouette she saw online days earlier. A mother of the bride may consider construction, fit, comfort and how a gown will photograph throughout a long evening. A bride arrives with an entirely different set of expectations.
Jovani’s growth has depended on learning to speak to each of them without making the collections feel disconnected. Over time, that has taken the company beyond its eveningwear beginnings and into the prom, bridal, cocktail, pageant and mother-of-the-bride categories, which collectively cover an increasingly wide span of a woman’s life.
Designed for Women
At Jovani, the perfect dress has never been about asking a woman to fit a certain mold. It is about creating a dress that fits and celebrates the woman wearing it. With styles offered in sizes ranging from 00 to 24, the brand designs for different body types, ages and stages of life.
That philosophy is especially present in the work of designer Julie DuRocher. Designing from a woman’s perspective, DuRocher considers how a gown will actually feel on the body: where the waistline falls, how a silhouette creates proportion, where structure or draping can offer support, and how a woman will move through an evening wearing it.
For Jovani, flattering design is not synonymous with hiding the body. It is about understanding it. Strategic construction, thoughtful proportions and carefully chosen fabrics allow the brand to interpret trends for the women who will actually wear them. Ultimately, a dress succeeds when the woman who puts it on feels like the best version of herself.
Dressing Generations
There is something fitting about a multigenerational company building its business around milestones. Fashion is often preoccupied with youth and newness, but special-occasion dressing works on a different timeline. Every year brings another graduating class shopping for prom, another wedding season and another group of mothers watching their children celebrate milestones of their own. That cycle has allowed Jovani to grow without leaving its original customer behind. Instead, the relationship can change as she does.
More than four decades after Jacob Maslavi founded the company, his sons are carrying Jovani into its next chapter. The collections have changed. The customer shops differently. The industry surrounding the company has transformed. But the family behind it remains.
And perhaps the most telling measure of what they have built isn’t simply that Jovani has dressed women for generations. It’s that, increasingly, it has the opportunity to dress generations of the same family.
