Southern Home (SH): We often begin by asking about the path to becoming a designer—yours seems almost predestined [Alexa started working with her father, legendary designer Mark Hampton, when she was 13], and you answered pretty definitively in the opening pages of your new book, Alexa Hampton: Design, Style, and Influence (Clarkson Potter, 2023). Given you’ve tackled this question countless times, we’ll give it a twist: If you hadn’t become a designer, what would you have been?
Alexa Hampton (AH): I think about that a lot. The fact was being a designer wasn’t handed to me, but the opportunity was. However, 10-year-old Alexa might have dreamed of being an artist or a bad fashion designer. Maybe I’d be a movie critic—I studied film, modern culture, and media at Brown [University], and I’m totally obsessed with movies. I’m going to have to get that answer tattooed on my wrist so I can remember it.
This, your third book, is such an intriguing combination of personal anecdotes and memories, essays on
