The first 50 years of the icon Kate Moss: “It’s impossible to take a bad photo of her”

John

By John

“You couldn’t take a bad photo of her,” recalls Kate Garner. “She is so British.” “Of all the photos I’ve taken of celebrities, Kate’s still sells,” she added. Moss, who grew up in Croydon, south London, was spotted by a modeling agency at the age of 14. She found success three years later, becoming famous for her ‘girly’ look and for wearing Calvin Klein underwear in suggestive poses. In 2022, Moss told the BBC she felt “objectified, vulnerable and scared”. Moss’s slim frame – used in “heroin chic” style campaigns – was in stark contrast to those of other supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell. Fashion brands fought for her and she set trends, helping to popularize the Hunter brand of wellington boots when she wore them with hotpants at the Glastonbury music festival. With her excesses and her fascinating life, Moss has become a staple of the gossip media. Tabloids followed her relationships with Hollywood actor Johnny Depp and Libertines frontman Pete Doherty. In 2005, Moss was accused of taking cocaine. Despite predictions that her career was over, she recovered and became even more popular. In 2011 she married The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince but the couple separated five years later. Beyond fashion, she fascinated the painter Lucian Freud, who painted her portrait and, as it later turned out, had two small swallows tattooed on her lower back