Katherine Moss (born 16 January 1974) is an English supermodel who is most famous for her high profile relationships, recent cocaine addiction and iconic advertising campaigns.
Moss was born in Addiscombe, London Borough of Croydon, England. She was discovered at the age of 14 by Sarah Doukas (the founder of Storm Model Agency) in 1988, at JFK Airport in New York City, after a vacation in the Bahamas. Moss then went on to become the anti-supermodel of the 1990s in contrast to the supermodels at the time, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell. This began with her first major cover and photoshoot in British magazine, The Face.
She ushered in the waif look (which prompted much speculation over her weight) with a highly publicised campaign for Calvin Klein, including posing nude in ads for its perfume brand, Obsession. Some have even blamed her for popularizing the dangerous "heroin chic" look. Storm Model Agency lists Moss as being 173 cm (5' 8") but it is widely known that she is shorter than that, around 5' 7". Twiggy, a famous model during the 1960s who is 5' 6", wrote in her autobiography that she and Moss are about the same height.
Despite this apparent disadvantage, Moss charmed the fashion industry and has walked/campaigned for such elite houses as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Chanel, Missoni, and David Yurman. Now in her 30s, Moss is still working and has become a "supermodel" in her own right.
In September 2005, after she was filmed while allegedly cutting and inhaling cocaine, several of her sponsors disassociated themselves. However, led by Virgin, work has rapidly returned.
She has a daughter, Lila Grace, born on 29 September 2002, with Dazed & Confused editor Jefferson Hack.
Moss has had campaigns with major Italian, French, New York, and British designers including Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Burberry, Rimmel, and Bulgari. 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 Vogue over 10 times and has been featured on the cover of 17 issues of W, including one issue with nine different covers featuring the model. W even names Moss its muse (September 2003 issue). She has worked with the most well-known photographers in the fashion industry today, such as Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein, and Juergen Teller, and is a Peter L "trained" model. 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 ceremoney was from the Christian Dior fall 2005 haute couture and would inspire John Galliano to create an entire collection based around the nude and black lace dress in Dior's spring 2006 ready-to-wear.
In 1997, Kate: The Kate Moss Book was published. The book is a compilation of photos Moss herself had selected to represent her career in front of the camera.
Moss has appeared in music videos like "I Just Don't Know What to do with Myself" by the White Stripes and "Delia's Gone" by Johnny Cash. She also provided vocals for songs by Primal Scream (2003 version of "Some Velvet Morning") and Babyshambles. She has worked with various artists and sculptors including artist and photographer Chuck Close.
In February 2005, a nude portrait by Lucian Freud of Moss while she was pregnant sold for £3.93 million. Moss planned and posed for the portrait as her version of the Madonna as a full frontal nude (see [[1]]).
In 2006, Sphinx, a sculpture of Moss in a complicated yoga position was unveiled by controversial British sculptor Marc Quinn. The pose itself was modelled by a more experienced woman, though the body, hands, and feet are cast in Moss' exact measurements. Quinn's representation of Moss is meant to show "a mirror of ourselves, a knotted Venus of our age."
April 2005 saw the launch of the Rimmel London mascara ad featuring a leather clad Kate Moss riding a motorbike through London.
Moss has led ads by Roberto Cavalli; and in the February issue of W is a 20 page main fashion shoot depicting her as Greek goddess shot in St. Barts while on vacation. And she is the cover of the 6 March edition of W and in a 15 page fashion shoot as Marilyn Monroe in the April issue of W.
In March 2006, the women's lifestyle magazine Female First reported Kate Moss as adopting Buddhism after briefly reading about its philosophy during rehab to get through an alleged drug addiction. According to Britain's Grazia Magazine, she is contemplating on doing charity or volunteer work to achieve good karma.
As of April 2006, camera company Nikon have also signed Moss to be the new face of their new Coolpix S6 digital camera, where the photoshoot features Moss in a state of undress, with nothing but the camera.
She checked herself into a psychiatric centre in 1998, claiming she was suffering from "exhaustion." She later admitted she'd been drinking and getting high before getting on the catwalk, but denied ever indulging in harder substances. Dismissing rumours that her stay was for substance abuse, sources have revealed that she was suffering from depression over her separation from longtime boyfriend, actor Johnny Depp.
The British tabloids and paparazzi often target Kate Moss, most likely because she never gives interviews. UK tabloid the Sunday Mirror was sued successfully by Moss for claiming that she had slipped into a coma after taking large amounts of cocaine in Spain years earlier. It was also alleged by the media in September 2005 that Moss has had a long-standing lesbian affair with best friend Sadie Frost.
Further allegations have been made that she has had sex with both Sadie and Sadie's then husband Jude Law several times, and that she has also been involved in lesbian threesomes with Sadie Frost and British TV star Davinia Taylor. Moss has been accused of almost everything from heroin use to anorexia. [citation needed] British tabloids, particularly the Daily Mirror, have long alleged that Moss habitually used cocaine. In interviews Moss dismissed these claims as ridiculous.
On 15 September 2005, the Daily Mirror ran front page and inside photos that seemed to show Moss snorting several lines of cocaine at a Babyshambles recording session. Her boyfriend at the time, Pete Doherty, is the lead singer and songwriter of the band. It has been alleged by Doherty that James Mullord, his former manager, was the one that sold the photos to the newspaper for a sum in excess of £150,000.
Moss ended the relationship with Doherty in November 2005, soon after he checked himself out early from the Meadows Clinic in Arizona, failing to complete a program for drug rehabilitation. Moss herself had undergone successful treatment there the previous month and had urged Doherty to seek the same treatment himself, while also paying for his stay. [citation needed] Doherty, however, claims that their separation involved other issues, telling the The Sun newspaper that Moss left him because, “I can’t buy her diamonds and my dick is too small.” [2]
On 20 September 2005, the Swedish fashion retailer H&M announced they were dropping Moss after giving her a second chance after hearing of her drug allegations. She would have been used for the campaign of their autumn clothes range designed by Moss's good friend Stella McCartney.
The contract was reportedly worth £4 million a year ([[3]]). The next day, Chanel announced that it was not renewing its contract with Moss, which was set to expire in October, although the company said that its decision had nothing to do with the drug scandal. Burberry also decided to drop Moss's campaign with them.
Moss continued during this period to appear in major ad campaigns for Dior. Moss was on the cover of the November 2005 W and also inside in a multiple page "fashion shoot".
Friends and supporters of Moss have defended her, including models Naomi Campbell and Helena Christensen, French actress Catherine Deneuve, pop singer Robbie Williams, ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp, and designer Alexander McQueen especially during his walk out after his fashion show wearing a t-shirt saying "We love you Kate". Artist Stella Vine also supported her, and paintings of Moss by Vine in this incident were exhibited and reproduced in the press.
Moss herself has issued an apology, though she stopped short of admitting drug use. "I take full responsibility for my actions. I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them," Moss said. "I want to apologize to all of the people I have let down because of my behavior which has reflected badly on my family, friends, co-workers, business associates and others."
Kate made a comeback just months after the cocaine scandal broke. Her annual earnings more than doubled after she left rehab.[citation needed] Her current contracts include: Rimmel, Virgin Mobile, Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Longchamp, Stella McCartney, Bvlgari, Nikon and David Yurman. She is rumoured to return to fashion houses Burberry and possibly even Chanel, both of which had previously severed ties with the model.
On 5 January 2006, the Metropolitan Police asked Moss to return from the US to Britain to answer questions about the incident. [4]. The following day, the Daily Mirror reported that Moss would return to Britain and face arrest about allegations of cocaine usage. She was interviewed by police in London on 31 January 2006, with her solicitor present, but reportedly made no admissions, and she was not arrested (photographs of alleged drug-taking are not admissible evidence in British courts).
Police also questioned Doherty who was on remand in Pentonville Prison. There were internet reports that Moss was seen partying in a New York strip club with actress Lindsay Lohan in late January, 2006.
