There are models, there are supermodels and then there is Kate Moss. Scouted aged 14 while waiting for a flight at New York’s JFK airport, the Londoner quickly went on to define the fashion aesthetic of the 90s. There have been countless magazine covers including 43 issues of British Vogue, scads of advertising campaigns spanning Calvin Klein to Chanel and Tom Ford and hundreds of catwalk moments including, most recently, a thong-baring appearance at Demna’s Gucci debut.
She’s been sung about by Pete Doherty and Playboi Carti, sculpted by Marc Quinn and painted by Chuck Close, Banksy and Lucian Freud. The latter is now the subject of a new film, Moss & Freud. Directed by James Lucas and executive produced by Moss, it explores the model’s friendship with the then – 80-year-old painter during 2002 when she sat, pregnant, for him. That lifesize naked portrait later sold for £3.5m. Ahead of the film’s release on Friday, our writers reflect on their Mossy memories from the nineties to now.
‘She looks like a renaissance cherub’
I have such a vivid memory of seeing this Corinne Day shoot in the 1993 June issue of British Vogue for the first time, in my student bedroom. Even a 19-year-old who knew zero about fashion could see that this was an earthquake. Kate, skinny and in her knickers in her shabby flat, stuck a needle in the vein of the new era of grunge and launched a new school of photography. The tabloids hated these photos, and there is an undeniable darkness to them – Moss had had an argument with her boyfriend that morning, and has recently spoken out about being bullied on set by Day – but such sweetness, too. With her poundshop fairy light halo she looks like a renaissance cherub. This photograph is in the V&A now.
Jess Cartner-Morley
‘It has become part of fashion mythology’
“Glastonbury Kate” is my favourite of all the Kates, especially Kate in 2005. A barely there minidress, a low-slung hipster belt, a boyish leather jacket with a battered leather pouch bag and her mud-splattered Hunter boots: this look has become part of fashion mythology and one that every gen Zer is trying to recreate 20 years later. It was nonchalant, it was carefree, it was so rock’n’roll. Everyone else at the festival was wearing skinny jeans, a sequin bolero and cross-body bag with a too-long strap – so she stood out. A canny reminder of how Kate manages to transcend what is “cool”, and just gets it so right. Every. Time.
Melanie Wilkinson
‘The most fitting of goodbyes’
When Kate Moss appeared at the 2014 Brits in the Kansai Yamamoto bodysuit David Bowie had worn as Ziggy Stardust at London’s Rainbow theatre in 1972, it felt less like a proxy appearance than a consecration – Moss not so much standing in for her idol as inheriting his mantle. Bowie had just resurfaced after a decade in the wilderness with his best album in years. Why wasn’t he there? Why wasn’t he performing live full stop? All we had was an enigmatic album cover and a regal-looking Moss, delivering an understated tribute that, in hindsight, with Bowie dying in 2016, reads like the most fitting of goodbyes.
Sasha Mistlin
‘Everything you want in a party dress’
Long before there were influencers, magazine shoots starring Moss were torn out and paparazzi shots were pored over as fashion fans sought to imitate her style. I’ve definitely at some stage printed out this shot of her and Naomi Campbell attending a party in London in 1999 and pasted it into a scrapbook. Now it’s become a digital mood board staple and almost 30 years later appears on gen Z’s Y2K-inspired Pinterest boards. It’s easy to see why. Glamorous, fun and flirty – these chainmail dresses with their butterfly detailing are everything you want in a party dress. And of course with Moss it’s never just about the clothes – the vibe she evokes is just as key. Captured leaving the party, both with smudged eyeliner, Moss with her signature smize and Campbell grinning, their sense of fun is palpable. And in today’s world of sleep scores, who doesn’t want that?
Chloe Mac Donnell
‘The naked dress-clad celebrities on this year’s red carpets walk a Moss-lined path’
I love slip dresses. They’re a satisfyingly low-effort way to introduce a bit of glamour, and Kate Moss is one of their most famous fans. A true 90s fashion moment was made with this iridescent dress by Liza Bruce that Moss wore to a party in 1993, paired with a low-key combination of flip-flops and, well, black underwear. It still looks so fresh today – the many naked dress-clad celebrities on this year’s red carpets walk a Moss-lined path – and, as I write this in the midst of a heatwave, incredibly appealing. In 2022, Kate looked back on the dress in a video for Vogue, and expressed amazement to “still be talking about it 30 years later” before concluding: “Good dress, good night!”
Rebecca Liu
‘Maximalist in spirit, if not in fabric’
It goes without saying that no one embodied 1990s minimalism quite like Kate Moss, yet some of her most unforgettable catwalk moments were maximalist in spirit, if not in fabric. My favourite remains a Vivienne Westwood autumn/winter ‘94 collection: Moss topless, eating a Magnum, in a micromini, towering pink platforms, a jaunty lilac pirate hat and the powdered face of an Elizabethan lady … and somehow still as effortlessly cool as she looks in Glastonbury pap shots.
Kate Lloyd
‘Pure main character energy’
Moss’s 30th birthday party was pure main character energy – and rightly so. Firstly, the dress: a vintage sequin floor-length gown with a cape, originally worn by Britt Ekland to the premier of The Man With the Golden Gun. But what I love about this look most is the entire package: the jazz-age curls, the smoky eye that matched the deep-water blue of the dress, the vintage purse, diamonds, more diamonds and the lick of dark nail polish. How could you not have fun in this outfit?
Jenny Stevens
‘An anomaly in a wardrobe that pivoted around rock’n’roll staples’
By 2003, Kate Moss’s fame and the fever pitch around her style meant that any image of her would be fodder for tabloids and fashion magazines in equal measure. This primrose-yellow vintage 50s dress – worn to a party for Another magazine in New York – was a bit of an anomaly in a wardrobe that pivoted around rock’n’roll staples such as LBDs and leather, and showed the model was anything but predictable. While it was years before “going viral” became a thing, the dress became so popular that Moss made a version in her first collection for Topshop in 2007. Luckily, it turns out – Moss told British Vogue in 2022 she didn’t know where the original was. Perhaps someone even luckier might find it in a vintage store one day.
Lauren Cochrane
To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.
