Alexa Chung’s M&S Archive collection is coming back to kit us out for the party season

Take a sneak peak at your future wardrobe heros

Update:

The collection is now on-sale! Credit cards at the ready, just scroll to the end to shop our edit of the second M&S Archive by Alexa Collection.

On September 12 we wrote:

The second round of the M&S Archive by Alexa Collection will arrive in store Tuesday, November 1. Alexa has opened up on what we can expect from the 27-piece collection to whet our sartorial appetites before the launch.

'For this collection, I was thinking: what happens after dark? I wanted to make a tuxedo, I wanted 1970s disco, Studio,' she told the Telegraph. 'Fabric-wise, I thought it could be a bit more shiny. Synthetic, but in a good way. And I was thinking of photographers and imagery that I like, Guy Bourdin or Bryan Ferry. It’s kind of Roxy Music – a bit slinkier, a bit edgier.'

Her party season pieces do indeed sound pretty slinky. In the velvet-heavy offering there's a black square-necked velvet dress, a navy blue velvet tuxedo, a tiny, stretchy, crushed blue velvet dress and 1970s fashion style leopard print midi dress.

In terms of outerwear, there's a men’s coat from the 1940s that Alexa has tweaked for women - which her friends almost mistook for Prada - a white, hooded faux-fur jacket which she calls ‘The Queen’, and another shiny black trench coat (last season's was spotted on many a front row-er at London Fashion Week). Another of last season's hits, the ruffled Harry shirt, has been reinterpreted in blue.

Alexa says she's grown in confidence since last season: ‘There was no pre-thought on the first one; I was so stuck on provenance and making sure that the pieces were exact replicas of the originals...This time, I was less afraid to tinker with things and make it slightly more appropriate for now.’

So, sharpen your elbows and pop in a note in your diaries to hit up M&S next Tuesday, people. Or shop it online at marksandspencer.com.

Scroll through our 5 favourite images from the gorgeous look book below.

On September 12 we wrote...

Alexa Chung is the ultimate overachiever. Giving us even more #careergoals, the TV presenter-slash-model-slash-style icon has just announced that she’s been back in the M&S archives designing up a storm for her second Archive by Alexa collection.

Following the sell-out success of her first collaboration with the British highstreet favourite in April, round two will hit stores, and marksandspencer.com, from the 1st November. The first collection was the perfect blend of Alexa’s accessible girlie-tomboy style and M&S’s quintessentially British aesthetic, and the second will also create a ‘modern interpretation of Archive pieces’, according to the brand.

Or, in Alexa’s words: ‘For this second collection I wanted to focus on a more luxe evening wear vibe to lead us into the winter party season and was thrilled to once again discover an abundance of inspiration within the Marks & Spencer archive.’

So, where the ruffled Harry blouse sparked a national frenzy, we foresee dresses being the big talking point this season. A sneak preview released today sees Alexa wearing a pretty polka dotted halter neck dress, we’re hoping her other style signatures – from slick trouser suits and romantic slip dresses, to chunky knits and Breton tops galore – will make up the remainder of the 27-piece collection to solve all our winter wardrobe needs.

What we can reveal thus far is that each piece comes with a little M&S history and will be named after a street in Leeds where the brand was established back in 1884.

This exciting news comes not long after Alexa announced that she would be launching her own eponymous label in May 2017. Promising daywear, eveningwear, shoes, jewellery and denim – we could soon be dressed head-to-toe in Alexa Chung - sounds like the dream ensemble.

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