From Alexa Chung (who turns 40) to today: how much have the It girls changed?

“Girls want to be her, boys want to be with her.” This is the typical statement associated with for years Alexa Chung, emblem of It girl of the 1910s of the Third Millennium, a fashionable figure that presents itself today in a myriad of forms, so much so that one wonders if it ever exists anymore. But let’s go step by step.

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On November 5, the British woman with the wardrobe and sense of style that, a. K. (before Kate Middleton), we would all have liked to have, turns 40 and we wanted to take stock of what has actually changed regarding the concept of It girl in the space of a handful of years which instead seem to represent a distant time.

First of all, what it takes to be one? Are there certain criteria that need to be met? The qualities to be defined as such are impossible to list: that ineffable je ne sais quoi it is part of the DNA of the lucky few who possess it, among them in fact Alexa Chung, which (also for this reason) he deliberately titled It his memoir of 2013. A year, that in particular, defined as the peak of the “Tumblr girl”: at the time Alexa was venerated. Fixed presence, together with her BFFs Sienna (Miller), Daisy (Lowe), Pixie (Geldof), Agyness (Deyn) at all fashion weeks and front rows, friend of designers such as Simone Rocha, Erdem and Christopher Kane, much photographed icon of street style.

A real cult is thus born around her: everyone wants to be her and wear what she wears. In 2010 Mulberry creates a bag model that bears her name and which becomes one of the it-bags of the period, the collaborations involving her multiply (from Barbour to Superga, from Mark & ​​Spencer to J Crew) until she creates the her labelinspired by her idea of ​​fashion, a mix of the styles of New York, Paris and London which perfectly represented the two faces-à-porter of the model and designer (Spoilers: the brand closed in 2022): the more masculine and structured one and the sweeter and more feminine one, all seasoned with a dose of typically British eccentricity.

Chung, in short, was the mood board for a loyal following of fans obsessed with her indie interpretation of both androgynous and hyperfeminine style (now back in vogue, according to American Vogue) whose attraction, in fact, was an indecipherable mix of looks that could not be traced back to any brand.

Today the iconic It girl continues to be present at the most important events and fashion shows and, although we still don’t know what her next exploits will be, we are sure that, whatever she does in the future, her look will be impeccable as usual ( of course we follow her on Instagram).

Yet the term It girl wasn’t born with Alexa Chung: she was the writer Elinor Glyn who popularized it by attributing it to silent film star Clara Bow in the film It of 1927 and brought back into the limelight in 1994 by New Yorker which he defined with this epithet Chloe Sevigny. Finally, the boom in the early 2000s to label the girl famous “for being famous”.

Once hallowed by the media, these prototypical girls were a rare and exclusive category, glimpsed only through paparazzi snaps. But in the present, with the explosion of social media and online personal branding, It’s difficult to determine who actually fits this title. An It girl today is no longer someone who fills the front pages of newspapers or who has hordes of followers like Sadie Sink, Zendaya, Rosalía or Keke Palmer, but something a little more indefinable. Many of them, who might be so on paper, are simply too talented and already too well known to fit into the It girl niche.

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So, who are the contemporary Alexa Chung, which already seems so vintage in its iconic status? Last year the magazine Tatler presented a list of Contemporary It girls: Romeo Beckham’s ex-girlfriend appears on the list Mia Reganthe daughter of Mick Jones of the Clash, Stella, Sofia Richie Grainge, the heiress Ivy Getty and the actress Hari Nef, all in their twenties or so. And which, however, outside of a few glossy magazines, have not had a strong impact. Likewise, Nicola Peltz-Beckham and her husband Brooklyn they look like one power couple dreamlike. Always on paper but not so attractive in reality. This particular strain of celeb simply no longer has the fascination it had ten or fifteen years ago.

Because today the phenomenon has totally lost its meaning, so much so that even a magazine like Business of Fashion nonchalantly overlaps the terms “It girl” and “influencer” (which are certainly not the same thing). More than anything today, in the time of social media, we talk about That Girls, models to follow, under the name of hyper-sharing and replicable routines: waking up early, skincare, healthy eating, work, meditation, physical activity and reading. Practically very far from the original It girls they bewitched with lifestyle elusive and indecipherable and, precisely for this reason, magnetic.

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If Chloë and Alexa were unique and unrepeatable beings and therefore rare, social media today provides everyone with the illusion of being able to become a status. Thus there is an objective difficulty in emerging from the cauldron. What has changed now is that the coolness it is carefully designed for self-promotion (and consequent earnings) through the various network channels. There is no longer a precise category or a correct answer as to who is an It girl now. Which, therefore, is now extinct? Maybe not. But it is up to us alone in 2023, and the foreseeable future, to determine who that is.

Below Alexa Chung and the It girls of yesterday and today.

Alexa Chung in 2010 (Yesterday’s It girl)

Sienna Miller in 2013 (Yesterday’s It girl)

Daisy Lowe in 2009 (Yesterday’s It girl)

Agyness Deyn in 2007 (Yesterday’s It girl)

Pixie Geldof in 2012 (Yesterday’s It girl)

Hari Nef in 2023 (Today’s It girl)

Mia Reagan in 2023 (Today’s It girl)

Ivy Getty in 2023 (Today’s It girl)

Stella Jones in 2023 (Today’s It girl)

Sofia Richie in 2023 (Today’s It girl)