Alexa has been one of my fashion favourites for a long time now, and it seems that a lot of people agree. Not only is she a frequent visitor of the Front Row for fashion shows all over the world, she’s also inspired Mulberry’s must have ‘Alexa’ bag, topped Vogue’s list for the most stylish women, frequently writes for and is featured in both British Vogue and Vogue.co.uk and has also written her own book: It.
At just 16 years old, Alexa was scouted by modelling agency ‘Storm’ and turned down places at both Kings College London and Chelsea College of Art and Design. Known for her tomboy-glam “I just threw this outfit together in two minutes” look, her style is envious. Who else could wear clothes that should only look good on a 12-year-old and still look like they’ve just stepped off the runway? Not many. Seriously, I tried the full-length dungaree trend – it wasn’t pretty. Alexa is loved for her relatability, as she frequently posts make-up-less photos that remind the rest of us that we don’t need to cake ourselves in make up in order to look fabulous.
As well as being loved for her style, having dabbled in journalism for the Independent from November 2008 to June 2009, Alexa was made contributing editor of British Vogue in June 2009, an achievement which ignites jealously in many aspiring journalists.
However, it’s not all sunshine and daises surrounding Alexa, who has herself been the subject of controversy. In 2012, the model-come-IT-girl was criticised for uploading a photo onto Instagram that sparked the widely known ‘Thinspo’ debate, after which Alexa removed the debated photo and made her Instagram account private.
Despite the brief negative coverage that Alexa consequently received, she was announced as spokesperson for the annual British Designers Collective in March 2012, and has gone on to be the face of many campaigns including French brand Maje and Stella McCartney’s Comic Relief t-shirt collection. However, she hasn’t stopped there: just last December Alexa announced that she would be designing her own fashion collection set to launch this year.
It seems like Alexa never stops. From journalism to modelling, to acting and presenting, Alexa always has a project on the go. And yes, it’s probably extremely obvious that I am a huge fan of the thirty-one-year-old model, and I’m therefore probably very biased towards any negative comments that might be out there. But to be fair, there aren’t a lot! In the world of fashion it appears that Alexa can do very little wrong, she does not seem to have been sucked into a one-track career like many other models have.
So, how do we sum up Alexa? In a word: effortless. There are few other models – come actress, come journalist, writer, presenter, soon to be designer… – who portray a simple air of not needing to try (okay, obviously I’m not regarding the likes of Kate Moss, who, let’s face it, is like the Queen of the fashion world). What’s more, it doesn’t seem like the power of Alexa is going to die down any time soon either; I predict that she’ll be modelling on the moon in a few years – anything for a new challenge!
