British Born Beauty: Kate Moss The Face that has never gone out of style From her late 1980 s introduction to her latest collaborations. TIME MAGAZINE HAS NAMED KATE MOSS ONE OF THE WORLDS 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE FOR HAVING THE FACE THAT HAS NEVER GONE OUT OF STYLE. ALSO RECOGNIZED AT THE 2013 BRITISH FASHION AWARDS, TO ACKNOWLEDGE 25 YEARS OF CONTRIBUTING TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY, IT WAS MADE KNOWN THERE, THAT MOSS HASN T GONE A YEAR WITHOUT A COVER IN BRITISH VOGUE SINCE 1993. SHE WAS ALSO AWARDED THE FASHION INFLUENCE AWARD BY THE COUNCIL OF FASHION DESIGNERS OF AMERICA AND PLACED ON VANITY FAIRS BEST DRESSED LIST FOR HER ICONIC GIRLY-GRUNGY LOOK. LEARN THE LIFE OF A MODERN FASHION ICON 30 Mar 2015 issue 1
DONT COMPLAIN, DONT EXPLAIN. If you rewind the story of Kate Moss s life long journey, you will find yourself in the invigorating, warm, sea breeze of Surrey, England; London s natural buffer to the city if you ask any Londoner that is. The story begins though; on January 16 warm, Surrey air for herself. The early stages of her life were spent frolicking with her brother Nick until, the divorce of her parents at the age of 13. She then relocated with her mother and no longer resided with her brother. Although, the unfortunate circumstances of a corrupt marriage; it worked out quite well for Kate when pondering the odds of coincidence. In a layover at JFK airport in New York, modeling scout and founder of Storm model agency, Sarah Doukas spotted Moss, and forever changed her life. Doukas was extremely intrigued by her ethereal look, translucency, and phenomenal bone structure, even at the young age of 14. Despite the fact that she landed an agent, people would adjust slowly to her heroin Chic appearance, she was only 5`7 and didn t hold the curvy, voluptuous characteristics, those popular models, such as, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell did, in the late 1980 s. She did however find jobs here and there, including the Face magazine and participated in part-time modeling until she graduated from Riddlesdown Collegiate in Purley.
HEROIN CHIC Although her look wasn t the style of the 1980 s, her career took off in the early 90 s. At the age of 18 Kate Moss was the face of Calvin Klein, posing with Marky Mark for their famous underwear collection, creating not only conblict over the topless shoot but her, heroin chic or waif look due to propagations of anorexia and drug use was also stirring up controversy. Many viewers believed she was trying to glamorize the fashion industries previously, notorious drug culture. But in January of 1993 she made her Birst appearance in British Vogue, and little did she know, she would appear 34+ additional times on the cover of Vogue magazines throughout her career, and be the most frequently featured model at that. It is rather obvious that Moss changed the way society looked at boyish and more fragile body types in the early 90 s. Despite the negative comments, launching what would be known as the waif look; Kate moss continued to Blourish professionally. Although through the 90 s many people weren t only interested in her professional life, but also her Johnny Depp in the mid 1990 s. It has always been said that the two fell hard, for each other, for drugs, and for alcohol. Those three elements together formed one unpredictable relationship, though to the public, the it- pair of the grunge era (Elle, 2014). Proof of the unpredictable relationship surfaced when, Johnny Depp caused 10,000 dollars worth of damage to a New York hotel room in response to a disagreement between the two. Shortly after, in a1998 after multiple break- ups Depp dumped Kate for good in a public interview leaving Kate completely broken by his betrayal and checked herself into a rehab and mental health center. In a later interview with Vanity Fair Moss spoke out about the many tears shed over Johnny. She Said, There s nobody that s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said, Like if I said, what do I do? he d tell me. And that s what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of someone I could trust, nightmare, Years and years of crying. Oh, the tears! Although these two were an iconic Couple, It was interesting, that Johnny Depp s success was never a crutch for Moss s accomplishments, although they were popular in the public eye, Kate s career was never altered by Johnny s success, nor was it wounded when it was Binally over. After moving onward with her life and moving onward with her love, Kate began dating Jefferson Hack, editorial director and publisher for the popular British magazine, Dazed and Confused, in the early 2000 s. Three years later Kate gave birth to their daughter Lila Grace Moss. Kate expressed her love for being pregnant when describing her feelings as it felt that she had a 3!
little friend with her all the time. Although bearing a child together the two only dated for four years, assuming he probably couldn t take care of her. Kate was like a throwback to a la Twiggy in the 1960 s, small in appearance, but huge in the business. Throughout the entirety of her career she appeared on over 300 magazine covers and was featured in advertising campaigns for top fashion houses such as Chanel, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana. Once again reblecting Twiggy successful super modeling career, appearing in magazine spreads for Vogue UK, Vogue French, Vogue US, The Face, and Vanity Fair and posing for top industry photographers including Mario Testino, Steven Klien, and Mario Sorrenti. Make- up House Rimmel launched new mascara in April of 2005 and chose Moss as the face of Rimmel Cosmetics. However, 2005 didn t end as well as the year started for Kate, scandal hit Moss s career on September 15 th, when an article titled Cocaine Kate released, complete with images of Kate allegedly cutting cocaine in her most recent bad boy, Pete Doherty s Studio, as she 2002 experimented with music, providing vocals for Some Velvet Morning as well as Pete Doherty s band Babyshambles, where the partying supposedly took place. The images were of course from an unknown source, but due to the circumstances it may have been clear that the former Babyshambles manager, James Mullord sold the photos to the editors. Immediately companies began to drop Kate from their campaigns not wanting to be associated with Cocaine Kate, Chanel, Burberry, H Stern, and other major fashion retailers dropped her contracts in fear that the scandal could diminish their labels. Kate instantly felt the consequences and checked herself into Rehab once more in October of 2005, deserting her from friends and family. Kate had the support of many industry icons including British designer Alexander McQueen who dedicated a very touching walk- out after his fashion show wearing a T- shirt stating We Love You Kate. Critics of Kate Moss are hard to come by though; her friends and family have shown true loyalty and silence when it comes to the public eye throughout the entirety of her career. But just as Kate used her ability to take criticism positively from the Birst cocaine chic controversy over anorexia, Kate capitalized on her strengths and bounced back. With all this commotion and turbulence near the end of the year Doherty checked himself out of rehab early and Kate Binally made the decision to end their relationship for good at the end of November. Although a heart breaking, and difbicult decision for Moss, it only benebited her personal and professional life in the future, this was made quite clear when it was recorded that Doherty s motive for the split was because I cant buy her diamonds and my d**k is too small. Showing his undeserving personality for someone like Kate. On January 5th 2006 London Metropolitan police Biled a 4!
request for Moss to return to the UK for an investigation of the cocaine allegations. She admitted to nothing knowing the photographs were not acceptable evidence in the British court system, and the charges were dropped. The publisher apologized to Moss and was responsible for substantial financial damages to Moss s Career after she won the case. After all the dust had settled, work came pouring in for the super model once again. In November of the same year she found herself in front of Roberto Cavalli s camera once again, and had signed eighteen, yes, eighteen contracts for Autumn/Winter 2006! Following that, she signed a deal to release her own line of clothing in Topshop retailers around the world and won model of the year at the British Fashion Awards. And in 2007 launched her perfume products. Of course, as Kate excelled professionally, she also excelled in her love life, and met Jamie Hince, English guitarist for the Kills, in 2007. Four short years later on July 1st, 2011 Moss married her soul mate, Jamie Hince, at their festival style wedding. She walked down the isle in a custom John Galliano wedding gown to say I do. And he proposed to her with an absolutely flawlessly fitting vintage style 1920 s ring, that is a copy of the art deco style F. Scott Fitzgerald gave to his wife. Kate shared that A friend set us up. He turned up, and we spent the next four days together. And after we finally woke up, I said, "Do you want a bacon sandwich?" And he just laughed at me. I didn't know he was a vegan. We'd been together four days. He wasn't a vegan for much longer. I did get him with the bacon sandwich. She finally found the right bad boy, and says the way he has taken on the role of fathering Lila has stolen her heart. One of the more recent collaboration Moss took on was playboy s 60th anniversary edition, which hit stores in January of 2014 to celebrate her 40th birthday. Moss currently holds the position of fashion editor for Vogue and has been, since February of 2014 when she took part in her first shoot as a contributing fashion editor. My mum used to say to me, You cant have fun all the time, and I used to say, Why not?! Why the F**k can t I have fun all the time?
Kate Moss s ability to transform with the generations and remain at her top model position is very rare. Kate story captures the 90 s drug overload and indulgence so perfectly that her lifestyle has become as much a part of her fame as her modeling career. Her glamorous rock- and- roll status is one many people only dream of, and her killer cheekbones and heart shaped lips are to die for. Although Moss has been colossal in the industry she has always kept most of her personal life on the down low and her friends and family have expressed true loyalty to her, making her only more lovable. Between the months of October 2011 and October 2012 is recorded that her income totaled 11.72 million alone making her the second highest paid model. She truly changed the industry with her unique lifestyle and will leave a lasting impression on the industry with more than just her pretty face. There is something mysterious about Kate Moss and I believe that s what draws so many designers, photographers, fans, and loyal friends to her. That inexplicableness also shows through every shot taken, and that is rare to come across. As Alexander McQueen would say, WE LOVE YOU KATE! 6! By: Lindsay LaMothe March 27th, 2015