Alexa Chung goes for Bingo at her second collection drop

London - For the launch of her second collection drop, entitled ‘Prom Gone Wrong’, fashion designer and style icon Alexa Chung organized a bingo-event at luxury department store de Bijenkorf, in Amsterdam, Thursday evening. “This is great, forget designing clothes. I think I missed my calling,” she exclaims, while calling out bingo numbers and witty one-liners to a mixed crowd of fashion editors, celebrities, friends and fans of her new label Alexa Chung.

The model turned designer posed for selfies with fans among racks of her second collection, entitled ‘Prom Gone Wrong’, as a DJ Bella Hay played lively tunes and handsome waiters passed around glasses of champagne. After an hour or so, bingo is started, with 6 lucky winners taking home an Alexa Chung prize. "Oh, it's my favourite age, everyone it's number 23!" she calls out to the room, which had been decorated with pink and red balloons bearing 'Lonely Hearts Club', inspired by one of the slogan t-shirts in the collection which started out as a loose concept to celebrate the single life and was turned into a party open to all.

Alexa Chung launches 'Prom Gone Wrong'

Chung and her team are hosting a series of in-store events in numerous fashion cities, like New York, Hamburg and Brussels with their wholesale partners, such as Bergdorf Goodman and Smets, in order to better connect with her eponymous brand’s fans. Unlike her first collection, which is said to have truly been an oath to Alexa Chung and her Britishness, the second collection saw Chung turn more towards her own personal background and storytelling. "Prom Gone Wrong was inspired by a plethora of places,” she explains to FashionUnited in de Bijenkorf's personal shopping room. "America in the 1950s and 1970s, but also landscapes, like the English moors, and countryside."

She also looked to old films like Grease and Carrie for inspiration, which feature proms in very different ways, as the collection was created around the juxtaposition of something terrible happening and your perfect moment. "I imagined an American-styled prom taking place in England, don't ask why, in an old-school manor in the countryside, being crashed by kids from the wrong side of the track. And what starts out as a night that could go very wrong ends up being really cool for everyone."

The end result is a collection that is albeit "more feminine" than Chung would have imagined and includes statement pieces such as a floral sequin embroidered tunic dress and a velvet tuxedo suit embroidered with colourful daisies - all items that wouldn't look out of place at a prom. "The 'Dorothy' ruffled gingham dress in my favourite piece from the collection," she admits. But the collection also includes basic items, such as slogan t-shirts, oversized trench coats and tailored shirts as Chung enjoys artfully blending styles which may be considered occasionwear and making them day-time appropriate and vice versus.

Outside in the mock-bingo hall, Chung continues to entertain the crowd. "It's everybody's favourite position, it's 69! Now it's almost everybody's favourite position, but no not really as its 79!" After the winners call out bingo and step forward to claim their prizes, the night continues as the crowd browses through the collection on display. "I just want to concrete on making nice, cool clothes that make people happy," sums up Chung on her collection. And judging by the crowds' reaction that evening, she has certainly succeeded in doing so.

Photos: Chloe Leenheer