Mulberry, Alexa Chung partner on anniversary collection

July 13, 2021

Fashion icon Alexa Chung brings her iconic London style to Mulberry bags in a new limited-edition collaboration. Image credit: Mulberry

By Nora Howe

British leather goods house Mulberry is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a limited-edition handbag collaboration with British fashion designer and longtime friend of the house Alexa Chung.

One of Mulberry’s most memorable silhouettes, the Alexa was inspired by the fashion personality herself, and has been reinterpreted to reflect Ms. Chung’s personal style: masculine formality complemented by vintage romance. In addition to inspiring the British leather brand, Ms. Chung has cemented herself within the fashion world, serving as a global style icon and muse to heritage fashion houses.

The Alexa
Since she was scouted by a modeling agency in 1999, Ms. Chung has remained one of fashion’s most recognized names and faces.

She has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, and was appointed as a Young Style Ambassador by the British Fashion Council in 2010, which referred to her as the “epitome of London style.”

Since 2010, Mulberry has used Alexa Chung as a muse for its design and style. Image credit: Mulberry

In 2017, Ms. Chung launched her eponymous fashion label with the goal of combining Parisian chic with New York edge.

Despite evolving from fashion influencer to designer, Ms. Chung still works closely with notable brands.

Earlier this year, the British designer appeared in Italian fashion house Gucci’s “Winter in the Park” campaign, a digital project photographed by Angelo Pennetta. Ms. Chung modeled 70s-inspired fashions in a color palette mixing bold colors and muted tones in London’s Hyde Park alongside singer-songwriter Celeste and actor Vanessa Kirby (see story).

For International Women’s Day 2020, online retailer Net-A-Porter asked Ms. Chung and 19 other designers to create exclusive T-shirts whose proceeds were donated to women in war-torn countries (see story).

Today, Ms. Chung has 4.4 million and 1.3 million followers on Instagram and Twitter, respectively.

Her collaboration with Mulberry further emphasizes her influence on fashion, and specifically, British style.

Taking cues from vintage satchels as well as the Mulberry Elkington briefcase that inspired the original Alexa bag, the new versatile Big Guy handbag is designed to be carried all day and styled with everything. The Big Guy handbag retails from $1,380.82 to $1,658.37.

The Little Guy is a more slimline version, intended for evening wear, but similarly versatile in regards to styling. The Little Guy handbag retails from $1,103.27 to $1,242.05.

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Instagram post from Mulberry

Alongside the Big Guy and Little Guy is a complimentary edit of Alexa bags in a bright color palette and 70s-inspired treatments of the Mulberry x Alexa Chung collection. The new iteration of the Alexa bag retails from $1,380.82 to $2,074.70.

The new silhouettes are crafted at Mulberry’s carbon-neutral Somerset factories with leather sourced from environmentally-rated tanneries. In a push for circularity, Mulberry intends for its pieces to be loved and worn, and eventually passed down through generations.

Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has been growing in the fashion, beauty and luxury businesses for years now, and brands are eager to reach younger, valuable audiences.

According to 2019 data from marketing platform and data analytics company Launchmetrics, 80 percent of brands in these industries said they used influencer campaigns in 2019, up from 78 percent in 2018 (see story).

From YouTube to Instagram, and now TikTok, social media personalities have become crucial to successful brand marketing.

According to Vogue Business, 41 percent of Gen Z and 34 percent of millennial global internet users cited filling up spare time as a main reason for using social media, while 40 percent of Gen Z users and 35 percent of millennials said it was to find funny or entertaining content.

The most crucial elements to marketing in this new digital era are short-form video content and utilizing the influencer voice on new platforms designed specifically for creators, according to panelists at the Vogue Business and TikTok inaugural Technology Forum in March (see story).

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