From Alexa Chung to Suki Waterhouse: Why British girls are the new it girls

THEY hold it together when they’re out and about, and you’ll never be blinded by an overabundance of boob on their Instagram accounts. It’s time we started looking to British ladies for our inspiration.

"Noah" New York Premiere - Inside Arrivals

THEY hold it together when they’re out and about, they’re real about life and what they can do with it, and you’ll never be blinded by an overabundance of boob on their Instagram accounts. It’s time we started looking to British ladies for our inspiration.

If an it girl is a person who’s got it without flaunting it, and someone we look to for everything from style to sensibility, then women like Alexa Chung and Emma Watson are redefining the term. Google ‘American it girls” and you get Kate Upton and Jessica Simpson in bikinis. Google ‘British it girls” and you get clothing.

And OK, while you might see just as much of Cara Delevingne’s tongue as you do Miley’s, it’s just different, wouldn’t you agree?

Emma Watson attends the "Noah" New York premiere in March. Photo by Jamie McCarthy

It’s high time to swap Kim, Rihanna and Katy Perry for Suki, Ellie and Keira. Here are five reasons why:

1. They’ve got it together.

No sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll scandals here. Keira Knightley is a mega-movie star. Alexa Chung is the ultimate slashie — model/presenter/author/designer/muse. Suki Waterhouse just fronted Burberry’s Winter campaign. Daisy Lowe was scouted by a modelling agency at 15, and at 25 released a cookbook. Both Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora have forged successful international music careers. Emma Watson took herself off to university and got a degree. Jealous, yet?

Keira Knightley at the New York premiere of the Weinstein company's BEGIN AGAIN. Photo by Stephen Lovekin

2. They date guys who have something going on

Keira Knightley married rocker James Righton in 2013; Suki Waterhouse is dating actor Bradley Cooper and Poppy Delevingne tied the knot with James Cook who works for his family’s aerospace engineering company, in May this year. And okay — being in a relationship might not define you, but how many times has J-Lo hooked up with a back-up dancer?

Can we join in the joke, Brad? Suki? Photo by Stuart C. Wilson

3. They look real. And amazing. And interesting. At the same time.

There’s nothing artificial about these British girls — in fact, you could say quite the opposite. There’s a freshness to a Brit that no one else can master, and sure they play with makeup and dye their hair, but there’s no fillers, no stylists, and no endless stream of perfect magazine-style shots.

There’s also many a body-type between them. In fact, two girls who are skinnier than most, Alexa Chung and Keira Knightley, have openly discussed their difficulties putting on weight. Chung even shut her Instagram account down for a time when she found out she was becoming “thinspiration” for anorexic teens.

Alexa Chung at the Vogue Eyewear launch in New York City. Photo by Jemal Countess

“I think it’s about time people stopped judging women on their appearance and more on their intellect. Like you can appreciate my style without having to appreciate my weight. It’s not actually mutually exclusive. I just get frustrated because just because I exist in this shape doesn’t mean that I’m like advocating it,” she told Fashionista at the time.

Most significantly, it’s not all about sex for British its. These are the girls who don’t need to pose suggestively in front of a camera sans clothing to get a ‘like’ - they’re changing the perception of the female form, one blurry Instagram pic at a time.

4. They are full of wit, charm and honesty

A quick rifle through any interview produces countless quotable quotes from these Brit babes:

“If you stand me next to a normal model I look like an elephant, and that’s all right. I’m proud of being a woman and my feminine form. But it’s taken me 10 years to say, ‘Oh, I’m actually comfortable in my shape and I’m proud of being a woman and my feminine form’.”
- Daisy Lowe, The Standard

Daisy Lowe, Lily Donaldson and Kelly Brook attend the 2013 British Fashion Awards. Picture: Getty

“I just think that whole culture of hatred, and also feeling like it’s your right to judge people when you don’t know them, is really f***ed up. So I’m pleased I experienced that side of it, so I can learn to be a better person on the other side of it. I’m sure in the past I’ve been judgmental too ... Self esteem, that’s something you’ve got to work on yourself. I know for me it’s different day to day.”
- Alexa Chung, Fashionista

“I was quite an out-of-shape teenager. I wasn’t brought up eating salads or anything healthy. It was cheap food, like fish fingers, chips, beans. I started meeting people in my late teens that made me think, ‘f***, I really need to be healthier and look after myself’. And then I started running and it’s taken six years to build up my fitness from nothing.”
- Ellie Goulding, Stylist

“Prince called my management and they call me saying ‘Prince wants to talk to you’. First I thought they meant Prince William. And they are like “No, Prince! Prince the musician!’”
- Rita Ora, News Corp

Rita Ora in Cannes, France. Photo by Ian Gavan

5. They know style

Only a British girl can pull off a pair of jeans, a high-necked shirt and a pair of loafers one day, and a Chanel gown the next. Whether their look is sexy, grungy or preppy, their style is innate because they’re always being themselves ... And if you were ever caught telling them so, you know they’d hate it.