Yes, it is a friday, and yes, that means my weekly post of fashionable famous people, and even some you might not have suspected (vanessa ann hudgens, anyone?) in a little round up of those looking good in the past week or so. But this week i've decided to do something different. Partially because i have a little point i'd like to make, but also partially because i've been so swamped with course work for uni and getting into the swing of things, as it were, that i probably wouldn't have noticed if olivier himself came and asked me for directions to the nearest bus stop. Hmm.. that's a nice thought actually. Olivier catching public transport (!!!)
No, what i want to talk about is a certain Miss Alexa Chung, whom you all know i think is God's gift to men, but more importantly women with an eye for good taste and ingenius styling combinations. She is that infuriating mix of a woman who is both incredibly, offensively pretty, has legs that go on for days (and days, and days) a feeling that sadly i will never EVER know, she has a rock boyfriend who is arguably one of the greatest lyricists of our time, a life filled with party invitations and free maker's mark whisky (hey, whatever floats your boat), and, by her own admittance, a hallway lined with carrier bags from the various luxury houses urging her to be so kind as to wear their beautiful goods.
And as if that wasn't enough, she has a really interesting style. She gets it right, a lot of the time, mixing those cute little smock dresses with angry shoe boots and what seems like hundreds of necklaces tangled together as she struts around london town. Or how about her now infamous pair of Dries Van Noten heels that are synonymous with the Alexa look, which she pairs with everything from luella minis to marc jacobs shorts with tousled hair and cat eye flick. Or her seemingly endless collection of covetous coats, an A to Z or detailing from Military to Mud-splattered (yes, she has the new burberry ombre trench, how lovely it must be to be famous!) More importantly though, for me that is, is that she gets it wrong.
Phew, i was starting to think she was too perfect.
But, refreshingly, there is something very human about her, at times. Little things like her admitting that she's gotten far too skinny recently, or that she makes fashion mistakes like the rest of us, who is she (or are we) kidding when we think leather pants, especially slightly slouchy ones, are a good idea? She writes a column that walks a fine line between deliciously snarky and annoyingly unfocussed. And, praise the gods, she has a cold sore.
I empathise with her, really i do. Cold sores can't be the most fun thing in the world to have. Alexa, bless her heart, has been avoiding the press as much as possible, or when it was absolutely necessary, such as at the recent LFW, covering the cold sore with her hair, drinks glass, a hand, a large cocktail ring (so THAT'S what they're for) or turning her head to the other side. All good and well. She is doing what any normal person would do in the situation. But then she goes and writes about the cold sore in a column in the independent, and suddenly everything is not quite right.
Normal people wouldn't do such a thing. Just run with me here, for a minute. Yes, i know normal people don't have a column in the independent, and normal people don't have legs that you could use as a meter ruler. Yes, i know all this. But basically what Alexa Chung was doing by writing the column which was, granted, witty at times and elicited a little chuckle from me, was drawing attention to her cold sore. Something that, quite successfully might i add, she has been trying to do for the past fortnight! Perhaps she may not have gotten everyone to ignore, or even not acknowledge the fact that she has a big hunk of herpes on her top lip, but at the same time no-one was actively deriding her for it, except for the usual gossip suspects, none of whom can be reasonably taken seriously.
In fact, most of the fash pack and the musicians, the people who by her own admission Alexa admires most and seeks to please the most, were understanding and relatively blase about the whole thing. As you would be. Garance Dore, street-style photographer extraordinaire and someone who i really believe takes some of the most beautiful fashion pictures out there, airbrushed the coldsore out for Alexa. In the column Kanye West leant in for a peck after failing to recognise her as the girl who interviewed him at V the year before and Alexa says she yelled out 'NO KANYE! I''m Diseased!'. I mean, really. Alexa, you spent the whole time trying to draw attention away from it, and trying to hide it. Funny or jokey as it the exclamation may have been, the whole thing smarts a little of hypocrisy.
Without wanting to add fuel to a fire that has been burning for a very long time (think almost 20 pages on TFS), i really think that Alexa's column this week is just silly, even for her. Why dedicate a whole column, however humorous or joking in manner, to a cold sore of all things? Especially when you have been desperately trying to avoid casting the limelight upon it for days, no, WEEKS. Were you trying to pre-empt the gossip columns or the haters? Trying to get your own version of the story out?
Wouldn't it have been better form just to ignore the whole thing as something that affects 1 in 4 people (haha anyone from australia remember that statistic from the herpes ads?) and leave it at that? You don't need to explain the fact that you have a cold sore, or a toothpaste burn, or whatever it is, to anyone. All this covering up, and bashful glances, and attempts to shrink away is detracting from the fact that Alexa is actually one of the most naturally beautiful girls out there, with a sly wit, and a real intelligence that shines through in her television interviews. And a killer style.
So just chill out dear. No-one cares, really.
Alexa looked stunning at London Fashion week on Day 3:
[garance dore]
So that's my rant over. Hrose out!
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