Inside Alice's wonderland

"Sorry, I'll be with you in a minute," Alice Dellal says apologetically between mouthfuls of a late dinner, while trying not to burn her mouth. The chaotic scene in her hotel room perfectly sums up the boundless energy and kinetic nature of Dellal's life at the moment.

She switches from rocking out with her band in London one day to doing promotional work in Hong Kong for one of the most august of fashion houses the next.

Dellal was here to celebrate Chanel's rather surreal Numéros Privés installation in the Museum of Medical Sciences, which ended on Saturday.

The property heiress and society figure is also the face of the Boy Chanel bag, the brand's latest must-have accessory, but she has gained wider fame as Karl Lagerfeld's most recent muse.

Dellal, much like everyone else, isn't too sure what a muse is. "Someone inspiring who inspires someone, I guess. But a muse must be herself," she declares.

And Dellal, 25, is certainly herself, hardly fitting the mould of your everyday "it" girl. She talks in quick bursts peppered with London slang, is dressed in punky, big black boots, is covered in tattoos and keeps the left side of her head shaved in a look that has spawned a thousand imitators.