The Bite Magazine - issue 16

A s a model whose tran- sitions effortlessly from catwalks to campaigns, has weathered controversy without ever losing her cool and has transcended every swing in aesthetic trends to remain one of the most coveted faces in fashion, Kate Moss is a very rare thing indeed. As the story goes, the young Kate Moss was discovered aged 14 at JFK Airport by the legendary Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Model Management. At a time when golden haired, perfectly curved supermodels were reigning the catwalk, the waifish Moss stood out a mile and in making her debut she ushered in a new era for modelling, sparking the ‘heroin chic’ trend. It was a set of images by Corinne Day for The Face magazine of a 15-year-old Moss at an English seaside resort that launched her career so stratospherically. Shot in black and white, the images of Moss sitting with legs hunched whilst she smoked or running nude on the beach, modesty preserved by a hat alone were raw and completely aston- ishing for the time. Day described the images as “dirty realism,” the antithesis of the glossy, buxom style of the era. Hugely influential, the spread in The Face lead to Moss’s casting in a Calvin Klein campaign and from then on, her trajectory as an iconic model began its swift ascent upwards. Since those early days Moss has featured in ad cam- paigns for luxury brands such as Chanel, Balenciaga, Burberry, Versace, Rag and Bone, Givenchy, Dior, Gucci, and Alex- ander McQueen whilst also maintaining mainstream appeal through her work with H&M, Topshop and as the face of Rimmel London. Campaigns aside, Moss has also been one of the magazine industry’s most prolific cover stars, having been on the cover of British Vogue 30 times and the cover of W magazine 17 times in addi- tion to dozens of other international Vogue covers and fashion spreads for the likes of UK, US and French Vogue, Another Man, Vanity Fair amongst others. She’s a photographer’s favourite, having worked with all the greats including Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein, Juergen Teller, and Steven Meisel and she has an especially close bond with Mario Testino who even shot her wedding. Of course her talents extend beyond simply modelling trends to helping set them. Whilst her own personal style has been endless disseminated, Moss herself describes it as “going from grungy to tomboy to really”. She then added, “I like being dressed up and glamourous as well though - I like doing through the ages. But there isn’t really any no for me!” Equally at home in vintage finds, high street bargains and designer gowns, Moss is one of those chameleons whose insouciance keeps any ensemble from looking stale. Capitalising on her innate sense of style, her collaboration with Topshop allowed fans to bring a little of that Kate Moss style into their own wardrobes. The Kate Moss collections with Topshop have been amongst the most successful and profitable collaborations the brand has done and whilst her name is con- stantly sought for collaborations with other brands she has, most astutely kept projects to a minimum, choosing instead to wait for the opportunities that are the best fit and align with her own style. The perfect example would be her recent partnership with Equip- ment, with whom she produced a curated capsule collection of rock chic staples, displaying not only her flair for design but an eye for what women want to wear whilst retaining that undone chicness that screams Kate Moss. But despite her commercial success, the model has always courted a certain level of controversy, from her ‘heroin chic’ look causing cries for concern about weight and general health to the topless images in The Face that made her so famous, and her high profile romances with the likes of Johnny Depp and Jeffer- son Hack, editor of Dazed and Confused magazines and father of her 13-year-old daughter Lila Grace. But none caused quite the storm that her tumultuous relationship with Pete Doherty, the Libertines front man did. Images of her snorting cocaine during a Libertines recording session published by The Daily Mirror caused quite the scandal, leading to Moss losing almost £4m worth of contracts with the likes of Chanel, H&M and Burberry. However whilst a few wavered, the fashion indus- try was strong in its support for Moss and not even twelve months after the scandal first broke, she signed 18 new contracts with the likes of Rimmel, bite model profile balenciaga-fall-winter-2015-campaign