Roksanda Ilincic: The Goth strips off

The Serbian-born fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic is known for the sort of richly dramatic eveningwear – satin-silk gowns adorned with oversized corsages, gold brocade opera coats – favoured by those with dramatic leanings of their own. Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny and Thandie Newton are all fans of her modern boudoir look and, since arriving in London 11 years ago, Roksanda is now considered one of the capital's most desirable designers.

We meet in the rococo splendour of a suite at The Ritz, where Roksanda has been presenting her latest collection to Anna 'Nuclear' Wintour, the adamantine editor of American Vogue. An atmosphere of controlled panic hangs in the air; immaculately outfitted female assistants are hurriedly pushing rails of bagged-up clothes around while, at the centre of this vortex, Roksanda, 35, appears serene and unruffled. 'It's
amazing to get advice from the queen of fashion,' she says, a Balkan hint to her accent. 'Of course it makes you nervous to meet someone as powerful as her, but we're all human. It's not as bad once it happens.'

Roksanda, an ex-model, is all willowy elegance in pale pink Chanel shoes and a silky grey shift. Ageless and exotic, with her dark hair and pale skin offset by bright orange lipstick, she looks as though she's floated off the set of Twilight. It's only when she sits down slightly awkwardly that I realise she's eight months pregnant. 'It's a girl – I can't wait,' she says. Another new venture is a line of swimwear that makes its debut at Harvey Nichols this month. 'I was working with St Tropez on a skin finish for one of my shows and it just seemed like a natural progression to do swimwear.' The costumes are in sophisticated black or nude, with carefully placed cutouts or straps to create a graphic effect. 'The idea was taken from Deborah Turbeville's photo of women in a shower, and also Helmut Newton,' she explains. 'The two looks are complete opposites: one is haunted, the other is powerful and sexy, and I'm blending them both. So it's not about bright colours or wearing as little as possible. It's about an emotion.'

Roksanda describes herself as 'half-Montenegran, half-Serbian', but was born and raised in Belgrade when it was still Yugoslavia. 'Under Tito, we didn't quite belong to the Eastern Bloc. We were the only country that was independent – we were in the middle and open to everything. You could travel to both America and Russia without a visa, which was amazing.' She had a privileged upbringing. Her father Lazar was a successful businessman whose career took him (and sometimes the family) around the world; her mother Ranka worked in public relations. 'She was a really big inspiration to me. She was a big fashion lover and always appreciated great designers – she has a pure, classic taste. I would be taken with her when she had her private fittings, and I'd watch her dressing when she went to big events. She was a fan of Yves Saint Laurent.'

YSL continues to be an influence; Roksanda collects his vintage pieces and her work has been favourably compared to his. The fabric roses that her mother would specially commission to match her outfits are also a recurring theme, and Roksanda says that Ranka is her sternest critic. 'I had one show that everybody loved and she came up to me and said: "I'm really disappointed, the clothes weren't pressed properly. I can't believe you allowed that to happen." Sometimes she can be too critical, but that's good – it pushes me to give even more.' Indeed, Roksanda is known as a perfectionist, overseeing every aspect of a collection, down to the flavour of tea that is served at the presentation.

Roksanda's eye for fashion developed early. By the time she was eight, she was drawing her own designs and having them made up. As a teenager she once attempted to customise her mother's wardrobe, with disastrous consequences. 'I started cutting her long Yves Saint Laurent skirts short, which I regret deeply now. I was a bit rebellious and I did it without asking. She was devastated.'

Despite this early setback, Roksanda's fashion destiny was set. She won a place to study applied arts and architecture at Belgrade University, by which time the Yugoslav civil wars had broken out. 'Of course it was traumatic, just to see what was happening on the TV to your people.' The country was under a UN oil embargo, which meant no central heating at the university, so Roksanda used to arrive with a hot-water bottle under her coat. But the one privation she really minded was the shortage of fashion magazines. 'People suddenly couldn't travel as much,' she explains. 'They would say to us, "What do you need: food or essentials?" And we'd say, "No, we need the latest Face and I-D." ' It was in the fashion magazines that she learned about Central Saint Martins. 'I thought, it can't be coincidence that these people who are the best designers in the world are all coming from the same course.'

Roksanda made her way to London, where the Central Saint Martins professor Louise Wilson spotted her potential and offered her a place. There Roksanda met her future husband, Phil Bueno del Mesquita, entrepreneur founder of the chic trainer brand Acupuncture. She graduated in 2002 and launched her label the following year. For three seasons she was sponsored by Fashion East and her early work was notable for its extravagant prints and un-ruly shapes. By September 2005 she had earned a place on the official London Fashion Week schedule, and her first show was S/S 2006, held at Bibendum restaurant. 'It had only 13 dresses and they were presented in an intimate salon-style show. I oversaw every detail, starting with the colour of the flowers and table arrangements. It is still one of my favourite shows,' she says. Roksanda now sells in 36 countries worldwide, collaborates with Whistles on a diffusion range, and is working on a new range of bags, as well as the swimwear line.

It is hard to envisage how motherhood will fit into this schedule. Until recently, she and Bueno del Mesquita, 43, lived in a David Adjaye-designed house in King's Cross, which had a black chamber for an entrance hall, a glass-walled gravelled courtyard, concrete kitchen surfaces and a sunken cinema. A dram-atic entertaining space, it contained Bueno del Mesquita's 20th-century modern furniture alongside Roksanda's collections of ceramic albino monkeys and Pierrot dolls picked up at bric-a-brac markets. The couple have since moved to Clerkenwell, and plan to move again to a home more suited to raising a family.

A fan of Kate Bush and Slavic folklore, Roksanda haunts London's galleries and museums in search of inspiration. Almost everything she does feeds into her work. 'Fashion is full-on,' she explains. 'If you love something you do, you can work 24 hours, seven days a week.' She has managed to book some time off to visit Queen's Beach in Montenegro, where she goes every year. 'It's small and intimate – I like hidden, raw places where you feel close to nature.' But only if the baby isn't late.