Kate Moss

Katherine Ann Moss, better known as Kate Moss, is an English model who has appeared on over 300 magazine covers. She is known for her waifish figure, uncommonly short height for a fashion model, and appearances in many advertising campaigns. She is also notorious for her high-profile relationships and party lifestyle. Kate was born in Addiscombe, Croydon, London to Linda Rosina (Shepherd), a barmaid, and Peter Edward Moss, a travel agent.

She has a younger brother named Mick, a half-sister and a half-brother. Her parents divorced when she was 13. Kate attended Ridgeway Primary School and Riddlesdown High School in Purley.  She was not particularly noted for her academic success, although she did excel at sports. According to Fred Vermorel’s Addicted to Love: Kate Moss, “Out of eight GCSEs she scraped through with one C (in Science) and all the rest were Ds, Es and Fs”.

Moss was discovered in 1988 at the age of 14 by Sarah Doukas, the founder of Storm Model Management, at JFK Airport in New York City after a holiday in The Bahamas. Kate’s career began when Corinne Day shot black-and-white photographs of her, styled by Melanie Ward, for British magazine The Face when she was 15, in a photo shoot titled “The Third Summer of Love”. Moss then went on to become the “anti-supermodel” of the 1990s. This is in contrast to the “supermodels” of the moment, such as Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, all of whom were known for their tall and curvaceous figures.

Moss was voted 9th in Maxim’s “50 Sexiest Women of 1999” and 22nd in FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women of 1995”. Men’s magazine Arena named her as their Sexiest Woman in their 150th issue. In March 2007, Moss won the Sexiest Woman NME Award. Also in 2007, she came in second on the Forbes top-earning models list, estimated to have earned $9 million in one year.

In July of the same year, earning an estimated total of $9 million in the past 12 months, Forbes magazine named her second on the list of the World’s 15 top-earning models list. In March 2007, Moss won the Sexiest Woman NME Award. She also made her first appearance in the British women’s Sunday Times Rich List in 2007, where she was estimated to be worth £45 million. Kate ranked as the 99th richest woman in Britain. In the 2009 Rich List, she was ranked as the 1348th richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £40 million.

Style

Moss ushered in the waif look in 1993 (which prompted much speculation over her weight) with a highly publicized campaign for Calvin Klein. Her depiction in photographs also drew criticism from then-President of the United States Bill Clinton, who spoke out against the growing heroin-chic trend. When questioned about her weight, Moss commented, “It was just the time.

It was a swing from more buxom girls like Cindy Crawford and people were shocked to see what they called a ‘waif’. What can you say? How many times can you say ‘I’m not anorexic’?” Moss found success in the industry despite being unusually short for a fashion model and has worked for many famous fashion lines.

Kate Moss is also famous as an international fashion icon. She has garnered many awards for her style, including the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s fashion influence award and a place on the Vanity Fair international best-dressed list. In the early part of the 21st century she was, together with actress Sienna Miller, one of the main proponents of boho-chic.

She appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair’s September 2006 style issue. In the year of 2005–2006, her style was influenced by Rock and Roll. Due to her reputation, she is credited for setting numerous trends. She has popularized denim cutoff shorts, Ugg boots, ballet flats, Vivienne Westwood Pirate Boots, skinny jeans, waistcoat, Alexander McQueen’s skull scarf, Louis Vuitton’s Sprouse Leopard Cashmere Scarf, and the Balenciaga handbag.

Kate is also known for bringing blazer and ankle boots back into popularity. Of course, with all of the positive accolades she has received, there is some negative also. In 2008, Moss was added to PETA’s ‘Worst-Dressed’ Celebrities of 2008 because of her frequent use of real fur.

Campaigns

Moss has had campaigns with major Italian, French, American, and British designers including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Calvin Klein, Roberto Cavalli, Chanel, Missoni, Longchamp, David Yurman, Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Burberry, Stella McCartney, Rimmel, and Bvlgari. She has been featured in fashion spreads in most major fashion magazines including UK, US, and French Vogue magazines (as well as other international versions of Vogue), Another Man, Vanity Fair, the Face, and W.

Moss has appeared on the cover of British Vogueno less than 26 times, in addition to dozens of other international Vogue covers, and has been featured on the cover of 17 issues of W. One issue of W featured Kate on nine different covers. W even names Moss its “muse” (September 2003 issue).

Kate has worked with the most well-known photographers in the fashion industry today, such as Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein, Juergen Teller, and Peter Lindbergh. She won the prestigious Vogue/CFDA award from the Fashion Designers of America in July 2005 as Fashion Inspiration. The haute couture dress she wore to the award ceremony was from the Christian Dior autumn 2005 haute couture designed by John Galliano.

April 2005 saw the launch of the Rimmel London mascara TV ad featuring a leather-clad Kate Moss riding a motorbike through London. The ad ran with the sound track of the rock song “Another Cold Beer” by Steven Crayn. This advertising campaign is so popular that it is still running!

Twelve months after her cocaine scandal, Kate made a comeback by bagging 18 top modeling contracts for the Autumn/Winter 2006 season including contracts with Rimmel, Agent Provocateur, Virgin Mobile, Belstaff, Beymen, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, Longchamp, Stella McCartney, Bulgari, Chanel, Nikon, David Yurman, Versace, Mia Shvili, Calvin Klein Jeans and Burberry. She also agreed to make her first foray into the design world by designing a collection in collaboration with Katy England, for Topshop. Moss launched a fragrance and body lotion range bearing her name in association with Coty in 2007.

According to Forbes, Moss has earned more money since her cocaine scandal than ever before: her 2004–2005 earnings were $5 million and her 2005–2006 earnings were $8 million. In November 2006, Moss won the Model of the Year prize at the British Fashion Awards, the top accolade in British fashion, but the award divided opinion and stirred fresh controversy. On 27 September 2007, The Sun published a story entitled, “Kate Moss dumped by seven brands”, describing her “cocaine honeymoon” as fading away.

The story continues by stating that in autumn 2006 she had eighteen contracts in comparison to 2007’s eleven, and that in the 2006 fashion bible Vogue had six campaigns using Kate Moss including Dior, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, but November 2007’s issue had none. In 2007, with estimated earnings of $9 million, she was the second highest paid model in the world, behind Gisele Bündchen. The story concludes by saying that an industry source has said “She is still very big but the honeymoon period has ended.”

Fashion Designer

On May 1, 2007, a collection of clothes designed by Kate exclusively for the Topshop chain was launched across the UK in all of their 225 stores. A Kate Moss “countdown to launch” board filled a window of the flagship Oxford Street store. On April 30, she launched the clothing line at Topshop in Oxford Street, where she briefly appeared in the shop window modeling a red dress from the collection just before the shop was opened, causing a media frenzy. Topshop reportedly paid Moss £3 million for her work.

The collection of fifty designs included clothes, bags, shoes and belts where prices ranged from £12 for a vest top to £150 for a cropped leather jacket. Clothes in the collection included skinny jeans, one-shoulder minidresses, and T-shirts with the letter K woven into the design. Purchases were limited to five items per shopper to prevent the clothes from appearing on eBay. Customers were only allowed to try on eight garments in the shop. Despite these efforts, the day after the launch saw hundreds of items up for sale on eBay. The Topshop range was later released in the United States at the New York chain store Barneys, where 26 designs were on sale for higher prices.

Moss has continued to collaborate with Topshop. Her most recent collection was released in May 2010. Since the April 2007 launch, the Kate Moss for Topshop line has expanded to include lingerie and sleepwear.

Moss has continued to pursue other design opportunities as well. In a collaboration with Coty, Moss has released four fragrances.

In early 2010, it was revealed that she had designed a range of handbags for luxury goods house Longchamp. The collaboration is continuing, with another Kate Moss Longchamp collection released in autumn 2010. She has also revealed that she is interested in a jewelery collaboration.

Other Endeavors

Moss appeared on the Oasis single “Don’t go away” (1998) in the song “Fade Away”, that was also on the Help album (1995). She played a tambourine while Johnny Depp played a guitar. She has appeared in music videos such as “Kowalski” by Primal Scream, “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” by the White Stripes, “Something About the Way You Look Tonight” by Elton John, “Sex with Strangers” by Marianne Faithfull and “Delia’s Gone” and “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” by Johnny Cash.

She provided vocals for songs by Primal Scream (the 2003 version of “Some Velvet Morning”), Babyshambles (“La Belle et la Bête”) and The Lemonheads (“You’re a Dirty Robot”). Prior to breaking up with Pete Doherty, Moss co-wrote four songs on Babyshambles’ second album Shotter’s Nation—”You Talk”, “French Dog Blues”, “Baddie’s Boogie”, and “Deft Left Hand”.

On more than one occasion, Moss has DJ’d at the Death Disco club. She was often seen in the club with her friends Alan McGee and BP Fallon.

Kate is also known for her close friendships with many rock and roll icons and musicians. Kate lists Elton John, Mick Jones, Philip Colbert, Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Bobby Gillespie and Siobhan Fahey as good friends.

In 1999, Moss played a non-musical role in the British television comedy Blackadder: Back & Forth. Appearing both as Maid Marian and as a fictional Queen of England “who looks good naked”. Director and writer Richard Curtis said in the making of video, that they wanted “the best looking woman in England” to play the role.

Moss has also been the subject of portraits by contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud and Chuck Close. In 2005, a painting of Moss by Freud sold for £3.93 million at a Christie’s auction. Close has taken a series of daguerreotypes of Moss, which he has also translated into Jacquard tapestry.

British artist Marc Quinn unveiled another sculpture of Kate Moss in solid 18 carat gold, called Siren, which was exhibited in the British Museum, London. The life size sculpture was promoted as “the largest gold statue since ancient Egypt”. Quinn presents Kate Moss as a modern-day Aphrodite, reminding us that Moss’s likeness has become as iconic as the goddesses of the ancient world.

Charity Work

Kate Moss has been a supporter of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity. In the 1990s Kate was featured in one of their target T-shirt campaigns. She also supported War Child. In 2007 she designed a bracelet with Willis in aid of Cancer Research UK and said “I am happy to give my support to help fund crucial research, as so many lives are affected by this terrible disease”.

She has also helped to launch the SamandRuby charity in March 2006. The charity was started to provide funding for the education and shelter of Thai children. The SamandRuby organization is named after a friend of Moss’s, Samantha Archer Fayet and her 6-month-old daughter Ruby Rose, who were killed by the Tsunami while visiting Thailand. Kate also supports the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Hoping Foundation, the Lucie Blackman Trust, Make Poverty History, Comic Relief and Homes of Hope, which her close friend Sadie Frost also supports.

On 22 November 2006, Kate Moss recorded an appearance in a Little Britain sketch for Comic Relief at the Hammersmith Apollo as a character called Katie Pollard, sister of Vicky Pollard played by Matt Lucas.

Gold Statue?In 2008, it was reported that a £1.5m ($2.8m) 100% gold statue had been made of supermodel Kate Moss as part of a British Museum exhibition. Entitled “Siren”, the 50 kg (110 lb) hollow statue was made by Marc Quinn, who described Moss as “the ideal beauty of the moment”. The statue is said to be the largest gold statue to be created since the era of Ancient Egypt.

Courtesy of Wikipedia