I offer these suggestions not in the spirit of "you ought to do this" but rather in the spirit of "this is what I would do, perhaps this will inspire in you some ideas you think are worthwhile"
The basic problem I see here is that these are models trying to do the "fashion" thing. "Fashion" and related disciplines are basically lighting exercises that happen to have a girl in the frame. So, when we see girls doing (or attempting to do) the fashion thing, but the light is natural rather than built up with 40 strobes, it looks weird to us. Where are the catchlights, the hair lights, the everything lights? Alexa seems to have either had a bunch of strobes around her, or picked out a fantastic place to sit, since she has all of that going on.
Anyways. Given the pretty girls in model getup plus natural light, what *I* would do is try for a candid or street feel. It can look posed, it can be "fake candid" or "fake street" but get away from the fashion magazine look. If I had the opportunity to direct, I'd invent some attractive poses (with some twist and tension in the body) that look candid. Fix your hair, adjust your shoe strap, fiddle with your skirt, check yourself out in a mirror, look for something in your purse, answer your phone. If I couldn't direct but had to take it as it came, I'd probably skip shooting the poses entirely, but as soon as she started to move, I'd be slamming it and trying for a street feel. Shoot wide angle, get her walking, moving, checking out the next location, fixing her hair, etc. If her phone DOES ring, just start shooting like crazy
This is ALSO a fashion meme, the "fake candid" or "fake street" but since the idiom for for is naturalistic, you can get away with the natural light a lot more, I feel.
