Alexa Chung on her new fashion collection, her prom experience and how she tackles party dressing
Alexa Chung says that the inspiration for the second collection from her eponymous fashion label was somewhat unconventional; awkward American prom photos, with silhouettes borrowed from both the Fifties and the Eighties.
“They're actually style wise probably two of my least favourite decades, but in my mind funny prom photos featuring couples with listless expressions are always from those eras,” she tells The Telegraph of her Alexachung autumn range. “I became drawn to the stiff cakey dresses of the Fifties and that teddy boy look that was then regurgitated in the Eighties, but through a posh girl, Tatler rave lens. I just wanted it to be fun.”
Fun fashion is something that the television presenter-turned fashion designer undoubtedly specialises in. The reigning queen of the London party scene, Chung has launched (and relaunched) a thousand street style trends since she first appeared on our screens in Popworld in 2006, from denim shorts with tights to tousled bob haircuts.
After years of collaborations, dabbling with capsule collections for brands from AG Jeans to Marks and Spencer, she finally put her own brand on the map back in May and is now establishing her design handwriting. Alexachung is preppy, girly, masculine and cool - all at once.
“I hope like most things we make to be wearing them forever,” she tells us of her favourite piece from season two, a “blue and white floaty long gingham dress”.
The prom photos on her moodboard, she says, led to a look at new ways of merging traditional menswear and womenswear silhouettes. “It originally started as a way to divide the collection in to masculine and feminine looks and to spark the design process from that distinctive viewpoint,” she notes. “Literally girls on one side boys on the other because tailoring and tomboyishness is as much a part of this brand as the ultra girly dresses.”“I had a leavers ball I attended once sixth form ended,” Chung says of the closest thing she ever got to actually going to a prom herself. The critical question; what did she wear? “I made a skirt out of black taffeta fabric that I half stapled and half sewed myself into,” she says. “On top I had a backless pink sequin top. It was weird but I think I thought I was like Sarah Jessica Parker or something.”
In terms of her party style now, Chung has come a long way, but she’s still just as willing to bend the rules and throw, say, an oversized tuxedo jacket over a dainty ballgown, or a natty jumper over a silk dress. Her essential, though? “Probably red lipstick,” she says. “I'm not particularly experimental when it comes to makeup so if I have a red lip on it usually means I'm ready to party.”
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