Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

Usually when we talk about the defining characteristics of an it girl, it's tough to put your finger on exactly the magic ingredient that catapults a newcomer to international stardom.

Sure, it totally helps to be effortlessly beautiful, stylish, be in all the right places

and know all the right people.

But It Girl Magic is in fact way more mysterious than that.

The late great Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland, once said, the only real elegance is in the mind.

If you've got that, the rest really comes from it,

which is where Alexa Chung comes in.

Quick story.

Many years ago, when I was paging through the latest issue of British Vogue,

I came upon a young woman whom I didn't recognize.

She wasn't a celebrity or a model or a fashion designer.

But even in her then, unknowable way, she was already

iconic. And she still is. Over the last 15 years, she's made a serious name for herself, as the host of

an MTV series, as a best-selling author, and as a contributing editor at British Vogue, and on social

media, perhaps the heartland of It Girl territory.

Alexa Chung prefers a less curated approach, skipping over slick lifestyle scenes and jawline-enhancing

selfies in favor of cheeky outtakes, bingo games, and amorous odes to her close friends.

It's this down-to-earth attitude that continually sets her apart

and has made us feel a certain kinship with Alexa Chung,

...