Alexa Chung collaborates with Barbour on capsule collection

Alexa Chung has announced a new collaboration with Barbour, but admits she was scared of messing up the iconic British brand.
The model, TV presenter and writer-turned-designer, who has been a lifelong fan of the country set’s favourite waxed jacket, famously pairing them with denim cutoffs at festivals, has produced a capsule collection, Barbour by Alexa Chung – the first in a two-year deal which includes outerwear, tote bags and accessories.
In an interview with WWD, Chung, who has also been running her namesake fashion label for two years, admitted she wasn’t keen when she was first approached.
“I think I have a fear of modernity sometimes,” she told the fashion bible. “One of the reasons I didn’t do Barbour before was because I thought, ‘Why are people f**king with a classic?’ I don’t like it when they don’t honour what something ‘is,'” she shared before finally taking on the challenge to “really reimagine my dream pieces.”
The collection includes a jacket which is a patchwork of wax colours and tartan linings, while another short style is produced from what looks like shearling. There’s a Delft blue rain poncho and a long, quilted olive coat with a corduroy collar and cuffs which, when asked who it was inspired by, Chung answered, “obviously, Princess Margaret.”
The 35-year-old has cropped all the sleeves on her creations, neatened up the collars, and also worked to create a new slimming silhouette for the jackets which she dubbed “the B-line”.
“B-line, which I made up, is just a bit narrower than A-line, which swings out too much,” she explained. “And no one wants bigger hips. My whole ambition, at all times, is to not look like clothes are fussy or are eating you, and to make something hang so that it flatters.”
The collection, Barbour by Alexa Chung, will land online and in stores on 1 June (19), with a further drop set for 1 August.