She’s a Style Guru, co-founder of Villoid and a general social media force. She, who goes by the name of Alexa Chung, has been growing from strength to strength in her career lately, whether it’s her numerous modelling gigs or close relationship with Vogue. From this success comes the depth of her influence; the Alexa Chung seal of approval means a great deal.
Now, the beautiful bobbed Chung is collaborating with the high street brand M&S. As the name Archive by Alexa suggests, this collection is inspired by the brand’s past. The 31 ready-to-wear items will be available from April, and is set to be the revival of days gone by.
So what can we expect from the collection? Well according to the model’s Instagram a pink ruffled Victorian blouse will be a key piece, and I suspect the vintage vibe will continue throughout.
Fashion is often defined by its fickle nature, with new trends cropping up before you have come to grasp the previous, and stores stocking new clothes each week. However, this collection will be looking at things differently. The idea is to take heritage items which aren’t broken, (just old), and fix them anyway, with a juicily modern colour and fabric scheme.
She told Vogue: “It was so fun to be given the keys to the M&S archive and such a treat to get to cherry pick the very best of their vast collection of pieces.”
She went on to say: “I pulled from stored garments, in-house magazines and TV adverts from various points in the history of Marks & Spencer to create the collection that I believe looks every bit as relevant today as it did then.”
As if birthing a new capsule collection wasn’t enough, Archive by Alexa will be accompanied by a campaign, created by her, naturally, called “m&s &…” and will allow other designers to make their mark on the high street brand.
The trend setter turns every item of clothing she touches into gold, and I have the impression that Archive by Alexa is a sure fire way to reignite the level of interest in M&S, which has been less than exciting lately.
In fact, the miserable sales figures for the festive period, which were down by 5%, prompted the resignation of Marc Bolland. Now, the new Chief Executive Steve Rowe wants to look to the brand’s history to secure its future. He even speaks about bringing back much-loved hits, such as that pink coat.
Whoever had the initiative to hire Alexa was on to something, as she was responsible for the soaring success of their tan suede skirt, after she was photographed wearing it. This 70s revamp was the cause of their first profit rise in four years, so you can understand everyone’s uncontained excitement for the collection.
Now whilst we wait for this mega partnership to launch, and many others to follow, let’s remind ourselves of Alexa’s talent for modernised heritage styling and general oozing of cool.
