Alexa Chung (Gok’s Fashion Fix) Interview
At 24, Alexa Chung seems to be leading a charmed life. A model at the age of 16, she is a TV presenter, fashion icon and documentary-maker, and even has a hugely successful celebrity boyfriend (Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys). But it gets even better. She’s landed a job on the hottest fashion show on TV, Gok’s Fashion Fix, which involves her flying all over the world to interview some of the industry’s top designers.
For a girl fascinated by fashion, it’s a dream come true. It would be easy to hate her, if she wasn’t so charming, relaxed and funny. Here, she reveals how her charmed life came to be, why she became disillusioned with modelling, and what is the most expensive thing in her wardrobe.
You started off your career modelling. Yours was one of those stories of being ‘discovered’ wasn’t it?
Yeah, it was at Reading Festival. I was 16, in the comedy tent watching something, and some girl was giving me evils, so I said “What?” And she said ”Have you ever thought about modelling?” So I joined an agency from there, and did modelling for the next few years, from 16 until I was 22.
You appeared in a few music videos during that time, didn’t you?
Yeah, I did stuff for The Streets, Holly Valance, Westlife… Everyone was really nice. I did loads of music videos, loads of adverts, loads of everything. Most models end up doing music videos. They pay you, like £50, and you have to stay awake until 5am, but when you’re 17 and don’t have any money, it’s fine.
But you ended up becoming quite disillusioned with modelling, didn’t you?
Yeah. I basically had done all of the jobs that I could do for the type of model that I was. I was never going to be a supermodel. Within my field I’d exhausted all the opportunities that there were for me in London. I had got to a bit of a dead end. It began to become boring and monotonous. And also models are treated with a real lack of respect. On shoots, quite often people just don’t speak to you. I think my self-esteem went quite low, because I thought “Well, if nobody wants to talk to me, I must be really uninteresting and a bit thick.”
Luckily, you managed to take your thick and uninteresting self off to TV. How did that come about?
I auditioned for Popworld for the first time when I was 17, just in case either Simon or Miquita were going to leave. Obviously they didn’t go until much later, but when they did leave, I was called up to see if I wanted to re-audition, and that was that.
As presenter of Popworld, you interviewed countless musicians and bands. Who were the nicest and the most horrible?
The nicest was probably Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. Oh, and Beth Ditto - she’s always great to interview, very funny and really nice. Bad ones are just people who don’t want to say anything, or people who don’t really get it, and don’t want to take part. Popworld was the kind of show where most people wanted to have a bit of a laugh, but occasionally there would be people - normally Americans - who just didn’t get it. Alex Zane did an interview with Avril Lavigne which went quite badly. But everyone’s got records to sell, so most people are nice when you interview them.
You’ve also done a lot of live TV, as a presenter of T4, Big Brother’s Big Mouth and The Wall. Do you get nervous doing live stuff?
Yeah, I do. I’m doing T4 at the Beach this year, and that’s quite daunting, because not only is it live, but there’s an enormous crowd there as well. It was also pretty scary doing Big Mouth, because there’s an audience there as well, which sort of heightens the tension. But when I was doing The Wall, I found myself enjoying doing the show in front of lots of people and going out live. After a while, reading an auto-cue in a small studio can get quite boring, so when you add the element of live TV, it becomes a bit more of a buzz.
How did your involvement in Gok’s Fashion Fix come about?
I was approached to do it, really, simple as that. There have been lots of different fashion programmes that have approached me to get involved, but none of them seemed as appealing as this one, particularly because the names we have access to are big names. Channel 4 and Endemol are going to have the budget to make it good, as well. From my point of view, it encompasses everything that I’m interested in - it’s about fashion, but it’s got the same elements of irreverence and cheekiness that Popworld had. We’re not going to be taking it too seriously. So I’ll go and interview some of the biggest names in fashion like Karl Lagerfeld, who’s a hero of mine, so obviously I’ll take that quite seriously. But then last week, we filmed a feature about how high heels are, so we took loads of athletes to a running track and put them in this season’s highest heels and made them run around the track. So it’s got everything really.
What will your role on the show be?
Well, I think Gok is going to be the one out on the high street talking to people. I don’t think I’d be very good at that. He specialises in talking to real people, whereas I’m much more used to just taking the piss out of people. So they’ve allocated that role to Gok, rather than send me out to say “Yeah, that looks shit on you!” Wisely, they’ve kept me away from people, I’m being packed off to interview designers. I’m happy with my deal. I get to go to Florence and Milan while he goes to Rotherham.
Did you already know Gok before filming?
I have actually worked with Gok. I don’t know if he remembers, but when I was modelling and he was styling, we did a fashion shoot together for South African Elle or something. He was really nice. I was going to an event or a premiere or something that evening, this was before I was famous or anything, and he said I could borrow a dress. He was really sweet.
You’ve been named in countless ‘Best Dressed’ lists. How long do you spend getting ready before going out?
About 15 minutes. I get changed about three times a day, because I’ve got a really short attention span, but actually, when it comes to working out what to wear, it doesn’t take me long at all. I’m not really someone who spends hours and hours doing hair and make-up, as you can probably tell. That’s why I’ve got a signature look that takes me five minutes. It’s to do with laziness, not hankering after a well-thought-out look. I can’t ever be arsed to brush my hair, and I’m good at drawing, so I just put my eyeliner on and mush my hair up a bit, and it’s done.
That’s perfect though, it’s a quality that makes you every man’s ideal woman.
Because I’m not going to take ages in the bathroom! But it gets annoying, because often I’m the one who takes the least amount of time in the relationship to get ready. So I’m left waiting while they’re looking in the mirror. Luckily Alex is far from vain, so he’s quite good.
What’s the most you’ve ever spent on an item of clothing?
I don’t know, really. I’m quite moderate with what I buy. I don’t really splash out too much, and luckily people give me things - or lend them to me if they are really expensive. Handbags I spend quite a lot on. The most expensive thing is probably a Mulberry handbag, for £600 or something. I did buy a painting yesterday, from the Royal Academy of Art. So I think my new money-spending thing is going to be on pictures.
What’s your favourite item in your wardrobe at the moment?
Chanel black ballet pumps. They’re just the classic Chanel ballet pumps, and I wear them with everything. They’re like £200, but they’re fine because I literally wear them every day. So rather than spend £35 in Top Shop on a pair that I’ll wear once, I get value for money out of these. I love classic shoes.
What’s the archetypal fashion no-no in your eyes?
That’s a hard one to gauge, because things often come round again, don’t they? I dunno, I like most things. All the things you might think, like old men wearing really high up chino trousers, I probably quite like. Oh, I know, I hate it when girls wear leggings under dresses. And I really don’t like halter-neck dresses. Oh, and Boho belts slung low. There’s quite a lot I don’t like. I think most people dress pretty shit.
So we’ve gone from you liking most things to hating what everyone wears.
Um… yeah! But I like how old people dress. I like how mums and dads dress. Classic striped shirts and plain corduroy trousers. I like how teachers dress. I like how geography teachers dress in particular.
