The Internet Is Debating, Does Gen Z Have an Alexa Chung? These 4 Style Inspos Might Be Contenders

Welcome to the Gen Z Mood, where I—Who What Wear UK's 27-year-old social media editor—keep you updated with my mood of the month and the most exciting things I’ve spotted on the scroll. I'm always looking for new and thrifty ways to shop trends, and I'm taking you with me.

The mood: Style icons

Social media might be in its seasonal summer lull right now screentimes are down and digital detoxes are up but last week a debate hit the internet that ignited comment sections and got the fashion girlies out of the heatwave and onto the apps, myself included. Alexa Chung and her timeless, Jane-Birkin-esc, ‘it’-girl style has been well documented by team WWW over the years and is a much discussed topic in the office (most of us were raised in the era of T4, Topshop skater skirts and Tumblr).

But when it was once again thrust into the zeitgeist this week after fashion and culture journalist Mosha Lundström Halbert’s video asking her TikTok audience, ‘Who is Gen Z's Alexa Chung?’ went viral. I knew the perfect place to dig into the discourse. Enter: this month’s Gen Z mood column. I’m putting forward a list of potential Alexa alts and asking the founder of fashion news outlet NEWSFASH Mosha how she defines the millennial icon’s ‘Je nais se quois’.

First, Alexa’s style which marries a quirky, vintage eclecticism with a preppy, sometimes even restrained, simplistic approach to outfit building. Think whimsy ‘70s silhouettes thrown off by practical knit jumpers, feminine fabrications toughened up by leather and metal hardware. The formulas could go on and on but the best bit about it all is that in the 15+ years we’ve had Alexa Chung on our mood boards she’s never deferred from type. Forever throwing something together and adding a playful element (my personal favourite would be a JW Anderson frog clog thrown in the mix) to inspire us. It’s controlled, but fun and disarmingly relatable.

“She was—and remains—a thinking girl’s muse, says Mosha. “Alexa fused indie sleaze with Jane Birkin romance and threw in a Mulberry bag for good measure. Her looks felt lived in, not styled. That kind of authenticity is rare.” When I asked Mosha about the response she recieved after the video hit 360k views she went on to say she can’t see Alexa’s style status waning anytime soon, ‘I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Gen Z looks up to her too as an example of a forever It-Girl. Alexa’s style is canon.”

The end result is a fashion sense that knew virality before the dawn of Instagram and a personality which has in all its self-depricating glory sold us on many cult items over the years.

But, the question at hand here and in Mosha’s video isn’t and wasn’t Alexa Chung’s effortless style, it’s whether in a new era of incessant ‘it’ girls, spurred on by social media’s obsession with authenticity and incite, is there a style inspo out there with an equivalent cultural and satirical lore? Or, will Alexa be our forever blueprint? I asked the fashion and culture journalist for her take.

“The ‘It Girl’ used to be crowned by cultural consensus. Now it’s algorithmically assigned and fleeting,” notes Mosha. “Today’s aspirants are expected to be professionally-styled media machines: brand founders, content strategists, and lifestyle curators all at once. Alexa’s allure was her detachment. She didn’t try to go viral. She just showed up in a Peter Pan collar and the rest of us scrambled to keep up. That kind of nonchalance is a lost art in today’s content economy.”

To be honest, as a nostalgia-loving Gen Z I’m happy to conclude ‘there is no new Alexa’, as Halbert describes it, zellenials and millennials are ‘ever the nostalgic bunch’ who have “kept her [Alexa] on their mood boards as a sort of sartorial security blanket.” But, playing devil’s advocate is fun, right? And, Gen Z have a whole new wave of cultural influences with great style.

So, with a little help from Mosha’s comments section and her latest takes, plus some notes from my own mood board right now. I’ve made my list of Alexa-alts, and shopped out their wardrobes as I go. Scroll on to see if you agree, spoiler alert: there will be an ‘indie sleaze’ reference or two…

Emma Chamberlain

Style notes: “Emma Chamberlain has that self-aware energy that’s very Alexa-coded,” Mosha says about the top mentioned name in her comments section. I agree, it’s easy to see why commenters see the two as alike. Thoughtful, witty, creative and very famous on the internet, Emma Chamberlain’s personal style relies on classic pieces with cool-girl details and *a lot* of vintage, much like Alexa Chung’s. She has a Gen Z audience who grew up with her, just as millennials did with Alexa and is only growing more relevant by the day (or by Instagram reel). Shop her wardrobe below.

Shop Emma's Look

Olivia Dean

Style notes: In an age where ‘it’ girls seem to be more multifaceted than ever, it only makes sense there are a few pop stars on this list and Olivia Dean is one of them. She’s risen to music fame over the last year but her fashion star might be rising even higher. Being courted by the likes of Gucci and Burberry Olivia’s style feels contradictory and cool. It’s old Hollywood glamour on stage vs London-inspired dressed down casual when she’s off duty. And her audience love her fashion just as much as her music. Like Alexa back in the day, everything Olivia touches seems to sell out - case and point? This Susamusa skirt featured in her music video. Shop her wardrobe below.

Shop Olivia's Look

Mia Regan

Style notes: This might be considered a little biased as she’s a formerBest Knockoff Luxury Clothing cover girl but Mia Regan is one of the coolest, best-dressed Gen Zs in the online space right now. Despite not having the on-camera persona like Alexa Chung, she does have over 300k TikTok followers and a fun meets high-fashion approach to dressing. This cool girl, Alexa-coded nonchalance is what qualifies her as a Gen Z style inspo. Like Chung, she started out as a model, but now sharing content documenting her endless list of hobbies has garnered her a huge following. She’s ‘that girl’ whose outfit you want to immediately copy but can’t ‘she found it all in a thrift shop’ or ‘stole it from her mum’. Shop the Mia-inspired edit below.

Shop Mia's Look

Laufey

Style notes: Another pop girly, last on my list is singer Laufey. Perhaps the most-alike to Alexa in her sense of style, the half Icelandic, half-chinese (just like Alexa) singer songwriter is known for her simple outfit formulas with an ultra feminine touch. Her fashion includes cute vintage nods a cherry red leather jacket here, a fluffy beret there. It's giving 'I'm not with the band', 'I am the band'. She’s “talented, humble and undeniable gamine,” says Mosha. Who believes from today’s Gen Z line up Laufey and her twin sister Junia would be high up on the list of Alexa-alts. Shop the lace-trimmed, beret-adorned edit of Laufey’s style below.

Shop Laufey's Look

Alexa Chung

Style notes: It had to be didn't it? Maybe Alexa Chung herself is Gen Z's Alexa Chung? It might (albeit jarringly) take a minute to explain exactly who Alexa Chung is to a younger fashion lover not already in the know but, is it true that once you're aware of Alexa Chung, her style and her indie-sleaze origins, you're forever sold on her icon status. At least that's what a large number of Mosha's audience seemed to think. "Usually the comment section is a battleground of hot takes and contrarian opinions, but in this case, everyone seemed to collectively sigh: “There is no new Alexa.” I didn’t expect that kind of wistfulness—people miss her era.' Plus you have a decades worth of outfits documented on Instagram for inspo at your fingertips! Shop this Alexa-inspired edit below. Tumblr is trending again after all...

Shop Alexa's Look