Alexa Chung On Style Copycats: ‘I’m Happy Everyone Looks Exactly As I Want Them To’

Let's be honest: we want to dress like Alexa Chung. The model-slash-TV-presenter-slash-trend-setter is constantly cramming our Instagram feeds with snaps of her cool girl meets school girl style that makes us weak at the knees. So it's no surprise that she's spawned a zillion copycats eager to emulate her look and it's even filtered into her friendship group. Just this weekend, she was spotted out and about with BFF Daisy Lowe wearing an identikit outfits consisting of rolled up denim cut-offs. But how does Alexa feel about her style being forever stolen? In a new interview with The Times, The Chungster reveals it's not as annoying as you'd think and, in fact, it makes her 'happy'. She also dishes on the darker side of modelling and her hairspiration. Ever helpful, we've rounded up the best quotes for today's Chung fix...

1. On Chung doppelgängers

"I turned on the TV and I saw someone wearing a Peter Pan-collared dress and loafers and a bob. I can’t reclaim that, can I? It’s my dream, really. Can you imagine how happy I am that everyone looks exactly as I want them to? I don’t want that to feed into my opinions and what I do with my life. A couple of years ago I would be like, ‘Oh, I can’t do that any more: I’ll take off the bloody school coat.’ But I thought, ‘I like people who have a uniform.’ I like the way you know what Patti Smith is going to wear.”

2. On wanting hair like Gisele Bündchen

"But I’m sure that’s everyone’s dream. She has that really sun-kissed look."

3. On posing in her undies

“I know a couple of Page 3 models and they’re just like laughing all the way to the bank. Now they live in LA and do whatever they like. I don’t know. I think it’s up to the individual, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that, but they are and that’s fine.”

4. On her early modelling days

“I actually kept modelling very separate. I never really asked my mum or my dad’s advice during that time and it actually felt like I didn’t want to tell them too much about the reality of what was going on – when I was taking the train to London and being asked to do certain things. I already knew it was wrong. So, you know, if there was a casting where some creepy man there had gone on to his flat in Ilford and you know, ‘Take your clothes off…’ and if I’d have done it, I won’t tell my mum because I know that that’s wrong.”

Alexa Chung as a young model

“You had lots of castings where they were like, ‘This is for swimwear,’ and in hindsight I look back and think, ‘Did you really need an 18-year-old girl to strip in your front room?’ I get flashbacks now. Loads of flashbacks. I’ll be reminded of something because I’ve sort of blocked it out and I don’t really think of those days. Like, recently, I was like, ‘Oh my God. That’s so not on.’”

5. On not being bossed around

“Having spent years as a model not calling the shots and just being dictated to and not really being spoken to, I really enjoy my opinion being valued by certain companies.”

6. On whether it's hard work being the face of a brand

“Well, it is and it isn’t. Doing straight modelling with no promotion – that’s very easy. But I wouldn’t be happy just doing that, which is why I do TV and why I write. I wouldn’t say I am motivated by money. All the jobs I’m interested in have to have some creative input.”

7. On being of Chinese descent

“I remember asking my grandfather if he would teach me Chinese, but I think he was of the mindset that he was in Britain now. The other day I was at the Met Ball and Pixie [Geldof] came up to me with this Chinese man and he was like, ‘Alexa, we really miss you in China.’ Pixie was laughing so hard… Because I guess we never think about that.”

Get inspired by Alexa's greatest style moments in the gallery below...

WATCH: ALEXA CHUNG'S STYLE EVOLUTION