The everlasting coolness of Alexa Chung
Twee and indie slaze have made the English it-girl popular again
G-Club
March 14th, 2022
March 14th, 2022
To paraphrase a famous 80s film, no one puts Alexa Chung in the corner. Although many have tried. From Chiara Ferragni to Gala Gonzalez, from Leonie Hanne to Olivia Palermo, these are just some of the fashion influencers who in the last decade, driven by the success of Instagram, have tried to make people forget the coolness of Alexa, managing to put her in the shadows without ever completely obscuring her. Because she remains the first it-girl of the new millennium, the definitive style icon of the early 2010s, a bit like Kate Moss or Jane Birkin were in their eras. Her secret? A certain elusive je ne sais quoi, an enigmatic combination of charm, joie de vivre, tender awkwardness, indie touch, beauty and personal style that make her both approachable and unreachably cool.
@mcwchloe Alexa Chung supremacy #alexachung #tweefashion #twee #2022fashiontrends Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - She & Him
Alexa was born in Privett, UK, in November 1983, to an English mother and father of Chinese descent. The youngest of four children, she was barely a teenager when she was spotted in the Reading Festival audience and put under contract first by the Elite Model Management agency and later by the London branch of Storm Model Agency. Thanks to her mix of oriental and western features and her long figure she appeared in magazines such as Elle Girl or Cosmo Girl, in several advertising campaigns for famous brands and in some music videos. In the meantime, she continued her studies until graduating from the Chelsea College of Art and Design and began working as a radio and TV presenter. Her breakthrough came when she joined MTV and the talk show It's On with Alexa Chung. From being a British celebrity, her popularity became international. Suddenly Chung is everywhere. Major brands want her as an ambassador and vie for her presence on the front row of fashion shows; while girls envy her boyfriends from Alex Turner, frontman of the Arctic Monkeys, to Alexander Skarsgard and fill their Tumblr feeds or Pinterest boards with shots of her outfits.
Today we would call Alexa's style highly Instagrammable, but in an attempt to define it in a 2010 article the New York Times uses the phrase "tomboy-meets-Lolita". Her outfits, in fact, are a perfect mix of girlie and tomboy elements, rock'n roll and romantic, minimal essentials and frivolous details. Like Kate Moss, she has managed to give a new appeal to the Barbour jacket-Hunter boots combo; but also to trench coats worn with slip dresses and Converse; to Breton t-shirts; to A-line mini-skirts; to flats; to boyfriend jumpers; to Mary Janes; to sixties mini-dresses with rounded collars and even dungarees. Among her best fashion moments, besides the many shots at various music festivals alongside Alex Turner and outside of fashion weeks, are the bubblegum pink Luella ballgown chosen for the Elle Style Awards in 2008, the Le Smoking by 3.1 Philip Lim style suit from the Met Gala in 2010 or the velvet Gucci dress seen at the AnOther Magazine x Prada party in 2018. Each of these outfit changes has helped make her an it-girl, a status cemented by the Alexa bag created by Mulberry in her honor, a collaboration with British Vogue and winning the British Fashion Awards Style Icon Award three times, but also by the publication of her first book. Entitled simply It, the book is a kind of moodboard in which Annie Hall's tweeds, Margot Tenenbaum's kohl, the secrets of the perfect cat-eye according to Alexa and her love for Charlotte Rampling, Edie Sedwick's animal print jacket and many other fragments of Chung's universe coexist.
The pages of It seem to be part of a little glossary to learn the secrets of twee style, an aesthetic that has come back into vogue thanks to TikTok, of which Alexa Chung remains one of the major exponents together with Zooey Deschanel. The term "twee" originated as a mispronunciation of the English word "sweet", the pronunciation error a child would make, and as early as 1905 it was used to indicate something slick or delicate, while from the 1980s onwards it was used to describe a feminine outfit that was cute, but a little too childish. It wasn't until the early 2010s that twee became a full-blown trend, also known as Waterstones-core, Ukulele-core and English Teacher-core, and the arrival on screen of Jessica Dey, the star of New Girl played by Zooey Deschanel (but her Sun in 500 Days of Summer), an actress with whom she shared not only a certain temperament but also a wardrobe. Her moody sixties outfits were made up of romantic dresses, round-collar blouses, embroidered cardigans, bows, ruffles, ballet flats and Mary Jane's and oversized prescription glasses. The real must-haves of the period? Miu Miu SS10 collection and Olympia Le-Tan'cat flats.
@oldloserinbrooklyn Reply to @amyandtheisland the twee aesthetic #twee #fashiontiktok #tumblrfashion #nostalgia #zooeydeschanel #indiesleaze There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (2011 Remaster) - The Smiths
Alexa Chung was at once a perfect blend of twee and Indie Sleaze (just think of her fashion moments at various music festivals, concerts or alongside Alex Turner). Now that tribute videos to these two aesthetics are multiplying on TikTok, the "Kate Moss of the Millennials", as the model/conductor was nicknamed, is also regaining popularity. In fact, just like Queen Kate, Alexa has always remained a reference point for many brands, such as Loewe or Miu Miu, who continue to invite her to their fashion shows, for those who spend hours scrolling through their feeds with her outfits or her @alexachungart account. Chung confirms herself as the cool girl of all time for those who were too young in 2010 as well as for those who loved her a few years ago and maybe bought the clothes of her eponymous fashion label hoping to match her coolness.
Here's a selection of pieces to recreate her unique style:
MIU MIU "Mary Jane" in Velluto
€ 415.00
PATOU Tweed Mini Skirt
€ 350.00
SHAFT JEANS Lola Mia Lorenz
€ 249.00
RETROSUPERFUTURE Acetate Sunglasses
€ 199.00
JACQUEMUS Le body Yauco
€ 270.00
'S MAX MARA Giacca Misto Lana Vergine
€ 398.00
BARBOUR X ALEXA CHUNG Carmen Cerata
€769.00
MARC JACOBS Peter Pan Collared Blouse
€500
GANNI Colletto in cotone organico
€ 55.00
