Alexa Chung Got Her Style From her Mama
Alexa Chung in her Pixie dress for AG. Photo: AG
Alex Chung was granting interviews from bed on Thursday night. Chung, who’s hosting parties from New York to Tokyo in celebration of her collaboration with AG Jeans, was holding court at the Beverly Hills Sheats Goldstein house (it belongs to basketball uber-fan Jimmy Goldstein; look him up – images first) a week after her 21-piece collection, Alexa Chung for AG launched. They’re the kind of items you might add to your wardrobe because “Alexa Chung would wear something like that.” There’s a dark wash denim mini dress with long sleeves, staple high-rise skinnies, and black denim overalls that’d work for just about any event. Before Warpaint started playing a set outside by the pool, and while guests like Gia Coppola and Amanda de Cadenet arrived, Chung—in a Topshop leopard coat, Chanel ankle boots, and the collection’s Julie Pintucked Denim Mini Dress—was down to talk denim.
I read that some of the pieces in the line were born from items you felt were missing from your wardrobe. Given how much you travel, is there a piece of denim that you always have with you?
Definitely a pair of dungarees—or overalls, sorry—I always kind of lust after them when I’m on the plane, although they’re kind of impractical because you have to take the buckles down. I always take a pair of skinny jeans, and then we made the denim skirt because the different weather fronts always throw me. I think when you’re traveling from London to New York, LA, Paris, somewhere hot, the skirt is good to wear with tights and it can also look summery, so it’s a good transition piece.
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You’ve been spending time in LA working on this collaboration. Do you like the city?
I love it. I’ve got a bunch of friends here, English people who moved here, so it’s always nice to catch up with them. But aside from that, it’s got a cool vibe to it, there’s kind of something sad about it—kind of melancholy—and I like it. It’s very beautiful.
You’ve opted out of college twice but have managed to have a very accomplished career. What do you think about school?
I think you should do it if you can. I was very fortunate in that everything worked out in the end, but there were definitely a few years after I was modeling and made the decision not to go where I was like, “Aw fuck,” and at that point you feel too old to go back, but too young not to. But I think there’s nothing greater than education, and if you have an opportunity to sit and learn, absolutely take it. I know that a lot of people who are successful haven’t actually gone to college, so I don’t know how relevant it is, but I regret not doing that.
How do you prep your outfits?
I don’t prep them, I go off of my mood and what I have available to me. In the past four years, a lot of it has been just made up of whatever I’ve got in the suitcase.
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Piece’s from Alexa Chung’s AG collection. Photo: AG
Do you feel any pressure when you get dressed?
Sometimes, but mostly not; I can usually work out something. The weirdest bit usually comes just before I walk out the door. I have a good sense of what something needs proportionally.
You’re what Joe Zee calls a slashie; you model, write, DJ, design. How do you balance all of those things?
I don’t know. I think if you’ve got lots to do, ask a busy person is the thing, isn’t it?
Are you focused on one more than the others?
Fashion and design have kind of taken over the last year for me. But I’m too easily bored, and I think each thing feeds into the next thing, so if it weren’t that mishmash of stuff I wouldn’t know how to do each one. I need each creative outlet. My favorite is getting to express myself in whatever capacity it is, I’m very grateful that I get to do that. I think as long as I’m doing something that’s allowing me to express myself and I’m communicating a message, I’m really happy.
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Who are your style icons?
Currently…I really like Jimmy Goldstein, hello (pointing at a picture on the wall of Goldstein). He’s so cool. I see him in Paris at the shows all of the time and I’ve never known who he is. I just think he looks rad.
Anyone else?
Nah, just Jimmy Goldstein.
There are so many fan blogs about you. What do you think about that?
It’s very flattering. The only thing I think about them is that my mum looks at them. Like I’m sure she’ll be looking at this, which is fine, but when people say mean things or she’s reading through a comment box she won’t tell me, but then she’ll be like, “Oh I’m worried that you’re coming across as this or this,” and I’m like: well it doesn’t really matter. She’s always worried for me, she’s my mom.
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Is there anything in the collection for your mom?
It’s funny because my mom is called Gillian, and I do have a dress in it called Gillian, but actually it’s named after my friend. At the London launch, a bunch of my friends were sitting around and my mom was like, “I know, I mean I think it’s really amazing that Alexa called her dress the Gillian,” and then she looked at the other Gillian and went, “Oh,” and it occurred to her that wasn’t for her and she was like “Oh god.”
You’ll have to make something for her then!
Well I will now.
What’s her look?
It’s me. Skinny jeans, Supergas and a breton top, it’s kind of the most classic look. I used to be like: I don’t know where I get my style from, and then I’d go home and my poor mom would be in the house cooking me dinner like, “She’ll figure it out one of these days.” Meanwhile, I’m in papers in England when I first started being interviewed saying, “I don’t know I just developed my style myself!” And my mom and my sister are at the dinner table like, “Uh huh, yeah, how is that going for you?”
It sounds like you owe them each a dress.
I totally do, I missed my sister as well. She texted me and was like “Do you reckon there’s any way I could have the skirt” and I was like, “Fuck yes of course you can! Sorry! When your sister’s having to ask you for the collection you’re like, “Oh god.”