Alexa Chung’s World: Her Madewell Collab and Top Style Tips

Step into the universe of the coolest creatives in the fashion industry with Who What Wear US’s new series My World, where readers will discover how the top stylists, designers, and tastemakers built their careers; their favourite under-the-radar restaurants and hotels, beloved deep-cut album, and fashion finds; etiquette rules they stand by; and so much more.

The year was 2007. Images of a then fairly unknown Brit appeared in blog posts online and the pages of magazines. She was attending Glastonbury Music Festival clad in a leather motorcycle jacket, striped tee, denim shorts, and tight over-the-knee boots. She appeared seemingly out of nowhere and quickly took hold of the zeitgeist in a way that could only really happen in the mid-2000s. Her name was Alexa Chung and her je ne sais quoi was as difficult to put your finger on as it was influential.

For many of us, the first “style icon” who ever held influence over us was none other than Chung. Long before the social media algorithms or Pinterest boards, there was a little website called Tumblr.com, where you would search for and collect fashion and cultural inspiration, and Chung was its reigning queen supreme.

Flash forward to the present day, and Chung is the multi-hyphenate supreme, floating effortlessy between creative pursuits and deftly defying any single concrete label. On the one hand, she’s a published author. Her coffee table book, It, comprised of personal writings, drawings, and photographs, was published in 2014, and she’s a regular contributor to the Financial Times. But she’s also a model, having walked recent runways for Chloé and Miu Miu, and when she’s not modelling, she’s seated front row at their shows. And lest we forget she’s a designer in her own right, too, having helmed her eponymous ready-to-wear label from 2017 to 2022, and she is currently collaborating with Madewell on her third capsule collection for the brand.

Ahead, Chung shares more about her career journey that led her to the ultimate It-girl title, her perpetually sold-out collaboration Madewell, where she likes to spend her rare downtime while at home in London, and so much more. Step into Chung’s world.

You’ve worn so many hats over the years, from your design and business ventures to being a published author. I’m sure it’s impossible to choose, but if you had to drop everything to focus on one thing, what would it be?