Alexa Chung Breaks Down 20 Memorable Looks From 1992 To Now

My Life in Looks,

long may it rain. [Alexa laughing]

Rain, R-A-I-N.

I'm not, no.

[jazz music]

Hello, British Vogue.

I'm Alexa Chung,

and this is my Life in Looks.

Are we sitting comfortably?

Then I shall begin.

Ah, yes. A classic.

So this is a really stunning ensemble.

I was really interested in clothes when I was very young.

I think probably because I lived in the countryside,

and mainly I wore my brother's jumpers,

and jodhpurs, and stuff.

So when I got to wear my own clothes,

I really,

really had big plans for my outfits.

Actually, weirdly was quite shy when I was a kid.

Modeling was not my ambition, I don't think.

I thought I might be a horse-riding ballerina, obviously,

acrobat with absolutely no gymnastic prowess,

or a lawyer to upset my parents.

[Alexa chuckling]

I think it is a good time to move on.

So I was a model,

and then I became a TV presenter for Popworld,

which was a music television show,

and I was quite keen on being quite casual.

I just wanted to look like I looked.

And unfortunately at that time, I looked like this.

[Alexa laughing]

I always liked music,

and I always liked rock and roll.

Unfortunately, what we're about to see

is a lifelong obsession with Jane Birkin,

but like she's Jane Birkin, I'm not,

so, this is why this hair's pretty bad.

Mm.

Glastonbury.

I think around this time in my life,

I really enjoyed the role play of being like

a band girlfriend.

I was thinking about Anita Pallenberg,

or women who supported men in bands

in the sort of sixties and seventies.

And there is a like, blueprint for that.

I think I thought that knee socks were really sexy,

[Alexa chuckling] looking at them now,

they're pretty junior aren't they?

Oh.

So cool.

Never in my wildest dreams

did I think I could ever like land a cover of Vogue.

This was the first one I did.

Even though this is a cover with my face on it,

I was probably prouder of the fact that

I had an article within the magazine,

'cause I'd always wanted to be a fashion journalist.

I think I'd written an article for this issue

about being a tomboy, basically.

'Cause I think that is probably a big part of my style.

Oh, this is a Chanel show.

I'm wearing cycling shorts.

My first Chanel show,

I went to host a show for Channel 4,

and I had to interview Karl Lagerfeld.

And when I got there, I kind of blanked,

'cause I was really overwhelmed,

'cause he's so iconic,

and I ended up asking him a music question,

'cause that was the only thing I knew about.

And I said, Why did you put the Sherelle's track

at the beginning to open the show?

And he was like, who are you?

I think he was quite excited to be asked about something

other than the usual things.

He was always really comforting and funny.

He was a great wit.

This is a Valentino Couture outfit,

I wore to an award,

with Chanel Couture boots,

which I still have,

these Space Age boots.

Around this time, I went on Fashion Police,

which was a TV show in the states that Joan Rivers hosted.

And I remember her asking me if I was single,

and I was like, yes.

And she was like, you wanna know why?

And I was like no,

she went, you think that's sexy?

And I was like, I do think that's sexy.

This was a Chanel Couture thing that I wore in Paris,

with a Prada bag and Prada shoes.

This is the outfit I'd like to be buried in.

And I think it is always nice to know

what you're gonna go into the coffin wearing.

Couture is just the most luxurious experience.

You can feel that it's a different thing,

and you feel really

regal,

and naughty.

'Cause if you do normal things in couture, it's so fun.

This I wore to the Serpentine Summer Party.

It's Christopher Kane.

Often when his collections come down the runway,

they make you feel a bit uneasy.

There is always this undercurrent of the wrong.

It's not a passive woman that he designs for,

it's an a whole interior world.

It's something where you feel like

you're wearing someone's brain.

This is from filming

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie,

with Jordan and Suki.

I think Eddie was having a dream sequence,

where she was hanging out with quote unquote cool people,

and we were happy to oblige.

It was almost not doing anything,

we just literally drank wine,

and smoked cigarettes,

and had a chat.

And they were like, cut.

[Alexa chuckling]

I do remember being slightly jealous

of Suki's scene-stealing ensemble.

[Alexa laughing]

I was like, aw, I've worn a boring dress now,

and she's got this beautiful coat on.

This is in New York.

My friend had a shop there called the Deep End Club,

and I'm wearing her t-shirt,

which then became the thing.

That's my day-to-day look,

the classic silhouette, vintage jeans.

I really love denim.

It's weird how much I'm obsessed with it.

It's such a practical item.

Every single person has denim in their wardrobe,

and yet it's quite a hard thing to design.

And for me,

it's all about the pocket placement on the bum,

and how long the zip is.

I also don't tolerate anything with elastic in it.

I hate a 1% stretch,

it needs to be a hundred percent cotton.

Yeehaw.

Here I am at this is Prada's Miu Miu show.

I love Miuccia Prada.

She could literally spit in a glass,

and I'd be like how much? [Alexa laughing]

She sort of plays with tropes,

kind of redefines femininity each time.

As much as I love denim,

and men's tailoring,

I also have this weird affection

for very girly saccharine gowns and dresses.

I think again, because it's just a bit of a wink,

'cause it doesn't really suit my personality,

so when I put them on, I find it quite funny.

And that's why I like the power of clothes as well,

because you really can affect

other people's reactions to you,

based on what you've got on.

Love, love, love, love, love, love.

I love this outfit.

It's Prada.

I'm wearing it to the British Fashion Awards.

I am of Asian descent,

and I think it's fun to wear something that nods to that.

It's sort of a pajamery,

in the mood for love, thing.

I think I was trying to look like

those Chechico paintings of the blue-faced Asian women,

and I felt like this outfit

was reminiscent of some of their gowns,

and if I parted my hair on the side,

and did a cat eye,

I could kind of look like the blue woman.

I must remember to part my hair on the side more,

it's probably more beneficial to my quite angular face.

That's just a note to myself.

This was the first show I did for my brand,

Alexa Chung, R-I-P.

We did this show in a church,

it was really fun.

There was a children's choir singing,

You can't always get what you want,

which now seems quite pertinent.

[Alexa laughing]

It was so fun,

and I felt really overwhelmed in that moment.

A lot of my friends and family came,

and it was a wedding theme,

'cause I felt like I was marrying myself to my future.

I cannot even begin to start processing,

or downloading all the things I learned,

because it was every day was kind of an onslaught.

And I hope that along the way,

I learned how to be a good boss.

And I know that I was by the very end.

And I mean everyone did me so proud at the end,

it was incredible.

I'm a mermaid.

This is for Halloween in in New York City.

I love in America,

how Halloween you can really be whoever you want,

you don't have to be spooky.

My friend went as the best Halloween costume I've ever seen,

he went as an actor in an airport,

and he wore a baseball cap,

a script under his arm,

and he spent the whole night trying not to be seen,

and it was just like such a great commitment to the theme.

♪ I'm wearing a suit with sandals ♪

[imitates explosion sound]

These are real slacks,

and I wore them with a Chanel orthopedic sandal.

I feel like I look like Danny DeVito in Twins,

in a really good way. [Alexa laughing]

This is what I wore to the Met Gala,

a couple of years ago when the theme was camp.

I went to the design library,

which is a great resource for prints and patterns,

and I found a piece of fabric from,

I guess, the 1800s.

And we decided to transfer it into a brocade,

that was hand embroidered with sequins.

I was worried about navigating the stairs,

because at the Met Gala,

the staircase, it really is like going to Cinderella Ball,

like it is that exact thing.

It's amazing, but it's quite nerve-racking.

This is me walking in the Miu Miu show.

We were waiting for Naomi to arrive,

so we were all in like a very hot tunnel.

And then she finally did,

and it was so iconic.

She just arrived

dressed, and just went straight to the front of the queue,

and stormed down the thing.

And we were like, yes.

Bringing up the rear,

was Uma Thurman,

who came out,

and was literally just doing these amazing moves

for the cameras at the end of the runway.

I love London Fashion Week.

[Alexa laughing]

Sounded like I was unsure then, but I'm not.

I'm wearing Simone Rocha to a Simone Rocha show,

a Gucci bag,

some Alexa Chung Superga trainers,

and some vintage Levis.

I really enjoy Simone Rocha's designs.

She's so clever and has built her own language,

and an identifiable silhouette,

and weirdly appropriate for all occasions.

You could get married in one of her dresses,

and it could be the same dress

that you wore to the supermarket.

I'm dressed up as the Queen,

because I was doing a YouTube about Halloween,

and I kind of disturbingly had all the elements in my house,

like a scarf, a barber, pearl necklace,

granny glasses, and a stuffed corgi.

Hindsight dressing up as the Queen

[Alexa chuckling]

is embarrassing, I guess,

but I don't have the embarrassment ticker anymore,

they trained it out of me.

This I wore to the Met Gala 2022.

The theme was gilded glamour.

I'm gonna be transparent with you about this now, okay?

I wasn't invited.

And I was packing up my apartment in New York,

I was due to leave on Saturday.

And on Friday,

Derek Blasberg called me and said,

Would you like to go to the Met Gala on Monday?

And I said, Yes, please.

I had nowhere to stay.

I had no hair or makeup.

I had no dress.

And not to pat myself on the back or anything,

but I kinda nailed it within hours.

[Alexa laughing]

And I just had dinner with Christian Soriano,

and I called him and asked

if I could come and look at his lovely gowns.

And I was very lucky that he had this knocking around.

I really had this idea

that I could be a pallet cleanser that night.

I'm in a stage in my life

where I am sort of reflecting on things,

and thinking about things,

and not necessarily needing to be

the one that's creating the loudest noise.

And this felt exactly right

for how I was feeling in New York.

It felt a bit like this night was embracing my future.

There we have it,

that that concludes my Life in Looks,

I think we've ended on a high.

And, now I'm gonna sign it.

Gonna draw the same thing I've been drawing my entire life,

and one day maybe I'll meet this person.

I don't know who they are,

they just come out.

God, it'd be quite fun to host a show like Art Attack,

any production companies wanna do that?

I think it would be really fun.

Alexa

Chung

was ear. [Alexa chuckling]

Thank you for watching, everyone.

I'm Alexa Chung, still.

And that was my Life in Looks.