Ode to Alexa Chung's supremacy at fashion week

Ode to Alexa Chung: because for us Millenials she is and will always remain an unparalleled style icon

Being Alexa Chung: From the 2000s to today, she continues to be an icon, even for Gen Z.

We are now used to the plethora of influencers, talents, and digital creators (choose the definition you prefer) who, season after season, increasingly crowd the fashion world and are changing and unhinging its mechanisms and rituals.

We got used to the stars of the catwalks, like the sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, or to those compactly lined up in the front rows of the fashion shows that are born on social networks and that the fashion system has welcomed (after some hesitation), with open arms, happy to intercept their millions of followers and billions of views.

But in the midst of all this new social turmoil, to all these new faces that are born with disarming speed, there is one thing that seems to have not changed in all these years, and fortunately, we could add.

It is the persistent fascination and the essential admiration for what in the early decade of the 2000s was considered THE fashion icon par excellence, the It-Girl with a style to be copied (here with questionable results), the "muse next door". .. in two words and in a name and surname: Alexa Chung.

The writer has fully experienced the fashion crush for Alexa, together with millions of Millennials who still venerate her today, dedicate Instagram pages to her, and try (with poor results) to copy her haircut.

Just two pieces of information for those born after 1990: Alexa Chung, born in 1983, became famous as a model and veejay for MTV UK, in a pre-social era when MTV was still the main source of entertainment for young people; she is an English, self-confident, nice, at the beginning she does not yet have the cool style with which we have learned to admire her.

Within a few years she becomes a regular presence, together with her BFF Sienna (Miller), Daisy (Lowe), and Pixie (Geldof), of all fashion weeks and front rows, she is friends with designers such as Simone Rocha, Erdem, and Christopher Kane, and is a highly photographed icon of street style.

A real cult is born around her, everyone wants to be her and wear what she wears: in 2010 Mulberry creates a model that bears her name and which becomes one of the it-bags of the period, the collaborations that involve her multiply (from Barbour to Superga) until she creates her own label in 2017, inspired by her idea of ​​fashion and style, giving us the illusion of being able to be like her wearing one of her favorite garments such as those adorable velvet dungarees that, perhaps, they were good only for her (Spoiler: the clothing line closed last year ed).

They figure of her in this decade has always been present, despite the increasingly swirling rise of influencers and celebs arriving from social networks. She has over 5 million followers on Instagram but posts with extreme moderation remnants of her private and work life have invaded our Pinterest mood boards and filled with posts on the page of the Saved Elements of Instagram with the looks we have always dreamed of. At the latest Spring Summer, 2023 fashion shows he "snubbed" Milan and New York, but he played "at home" in London and made a trip to Paris (in the company of friends Derek Blasberg and Poppy Delevingne) where he gave us unforgettable fashion moments bringing in vogue some of its cornerstones (dancers and trench coats in the first place).

Alexa made us fall in love with the waxed jacket, or the Barbour jacket (just that of our fathers and grandfathers): while she wore it at the Glastonbury festival with her beloved Hunter boots, we went around on Saturday afternoon we were not even in the countryside British.

He made us believe that ballet flats were the quintessence of elegance (true) and versatility to combine with any look (a little less true). She wore all the cornerstones of English fashion with her twist: from the trench coat to the check print, to the leather biker jacket. How she wears romantic dresses with boots and Dr. Martens no one ever ...

In a world, like that of fashion, which today appears full indeed full of faces and names, hers is still a certainty and not only for us Millennials ... In fact, Gen Z also seems to like it very much: on TikTok, they discovered it and loved with the explosion of trends such as the Indie Sleaze and the Twee of which she was proud exponent and on the platform, the hashtag #alexachung #alexachungedit #alexachungaesthetic make millions of views.

Unlike many fashion icons (or presumed such), Alexa has somehow always remained true to herself, original in her own way, able to really interpret with her taste all the trends she has passed through (from the aforementioned Twee and Indie Sleaze to boho-chic, Normcore, etc) and in an era of people who live exclusively in total look, sorry if it's not enough!

Last but not least, she is very nice (as shown in the video below).

In short, on balance we continue to adore Alexa Chung, even if on the wave of emulation we did the worst things for her, we wore really questionable looks that made us sometimes look a bit like the "crazy aunt" on duty, hoping to have at least an ounce of its charm. Her style is not for everyone and it is not very simple, to be Alexa Chung a romantic dress with combat boots or an old Barbour bought on Vinted is not enough ... but we love her all the same ... and above all, we keep trying to be a bit like her!