Alexa Chung Talks About "IT", Her New Book

Alexa Chung is a television personality and international style icon. The quirky, exotic beauty is a co-host of the daily music television program Fuse News and a contributing editor to British Vogue. Anna Wintour has described Chung as “a phenomenon,” while Karl Lagerfeld referred to her as “beautiful and clever…a modern girl.”

"It" girl Alexa Chung.

She even has a Mulberry bag named after her.  So who better to tell us how to get “IT"  (Penguin Group), whatever it may be? Inside her book, readers will discover who inspires Chung--from Mick Jagger to Annie Hall.

According to a synopsis from Penguin, "IT" reads like a series of conversations had over brunch with an enviously cool best friend, and is just as much a book about cultivating one’s own originality as it is a how-to on capturing Chung’s specific je ne sais quoi.  

Read this Q&A with Chung for more insight into her fab world.

Question: Your style icons are varied, from the Spice Girls to Jeremy Irons to Wednesday Addams. What makes a particular look stand out most to you?

Alexa Chung: Sometimes it’s just an item such as Charlie Watts’s mohair striped jumper. But in terms of those three people that you have mentioned there…they all have something in common, which is that each are a fully developed character and their clothes are just an extension of a strong personality.

Q: If you could live in any decade—for the fashion, the people, the culture—what would it be, and why?

AC: The 1960s of course! I just thought that was a historically very liberating time and I like that there was focus on youth culture and it was mismatch of everything….music, race, class. It was a very intriguing time and the music that came out was some of the best. You can just like the 60s because the Beatles existed or you can like it because miniskirts came about, or Twiggy, or Birkin, or Serge, or Warhol. That decade provided so much of a blueprint for what happens now.

Q: Your book is full of beautiful and interesting pictures. What appeals to you about photography? 

AC: I love that through a lens, things change and you can capture what you think you’re seeing. But when it comes out it looks completely different and then others see it differently as well. I just like getting the perfect image and capturing amazing light and mood and emotion. A photo speaks a thousand words.

Q: What advice would you give someone trying to create their own style?

AC: Just go with your instincts. Find things you are inspired by or you like the look of. Work out what suits your body and your face and what you’re comfortable wearing.

Q: The title "IT" could be taken a lot of different ways—what does it mean to you?

AC: The word it means a lot of different things, that’s why I chose it. At first it was a nickname that I had for the book and then it just became it. And it was ‘It’…gotta go home and work on ‘It’…It’s gonna be ok… this is "IT." I love that word.  It’s so small and can mean so much.