Last Fashion Week, Alexa Chung previewed her Madewell collection for editors and those who were connected enough to be invited to the shindig. Last night on Fashion’s Night Out, she finally celebrated the line’s arrival in stores. She hadn’t heard that Madewell’s parent company, J.Crew, had banned employees from purchasing it, in anticipation of its smashing success. “I know that it’s already sold out online,” Chung gushed, wearing a T-shirt from the collection with one of her drawings on it. But the “Hello” bat is probably the line’s most iconic doodle: “I was absentmindedly drawing something in a meeting and it ended up getting its way onto a T-shirt,” Chung explained. Did the bat mean anything to her? “No.”
Chung was unsure whether she’d design the Madewell line for another season after this. “It depends on a lot of factors, mainly how busy I am, because I like to be really involved in the design process. So if I’m not around then it can’t happen, and obviously if they don’t want it then it’s not going to happen either,” she explained. The television host just signed a deal for a new show, filming in New York (she’s not allowed to talk about it yet), and is working on two other shows in England. She still lives in Williamsburg but is looking forward to the glamorous bicoastal lifestyle in her future, when work begins on the still unannounced New York project.
Chung is also looking forward to breaking out her cold-weather wardrobe. “I don’t really know about trends, I just wear things I like,” said Chung, who will attend the Marc Jacobs and Phillip Lim shows next week. “I really like jackets and layering anyway. So I’m looking forward to being able to wrap up, really. Because in summer, I don’t really know what to do with myself because I don’t really like sexy things.” We told her we haven’t seen a whole lot of booty shorts on the runways yet, but wondered how she felt about the lingerie-as-outerwear trend and very skimpy bottoms from the last spring season. “I change from day-to-day my opinions on fashion, so I can’t really give a solid answer,” she said. “But today I don’t mind sort of underwear as outerwear, as it were, as long as it’s teamed with something chunkier and heavier on top. I don’t think I would condone just wearing your bra out, but if it’s with denim shorts and a lumberjack shirt maybe it would look all right.”
