An English middle class child
“Never explain, never complain.” In the language of Molière: never justify yourself, never complain. This austere English maxim attributed to Queen Victoria could be the credo of Kate Moss. At 48 and after more than 34 years of career, the interviews given by the beautiful Englishwoman can be counted on the fingers of one hand, or perhaps two if you look closely. She reveals herself very little and responds even less to criticism. At the time of all social networks, do not count on her to do stories in Miami or Dubai. The only Instagram account she maintains has over 1.3 million followers, but that’s for her modeling agency. Final point. However, the twig continues to make the cover of magazines and its image has never ceased to sell, even after repeated scandals. The proof, the very chic Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics line recently made her its muse and Kim Kardashian also chose her to become one of the ambassadors of her Skims underwear brand. Better yet, Kanye West’s ex proudly displayed herself on the arm of the one we nicknamed the twig during a trip to Rome and a visit to the Vatican last July. Like what, the brunette may have revolutionized the standards of beauty with her curves, she still needs to be dubbed by her skinny eldest. It must be said that when it comes to scandal and business, Kim may be very talented, but she didn’t invent anything! The “Cocaine Kate” (see box) and her multiple outbursts with her exes, actor Johnny Depp and rocker Pete Doherty in the lead, could have put an end to her career for good. The exact opposite happened. Kate lost a few contracts at the time in 2005, but got a flurry of them afterwards. How to explain such longevity? By her beauty no doubt, but also and above all by her talent, her professionalism and her sense of style… Born on January 16, 1974 in Croydon in the southern suburbs of London, Katherine Ann Moss grew up in the typical English middle class. Linda, her mother, is a bartender and saleswoman, Peter, her father, is an airline employee and travel agent. She has a little brother, Nick, and will later have a half-sister, Lottie, who will desperately try to follow in her footsteps and still succeeds today more in terms of provocation than talent on the catwalks.
His career
1990 Kate is on the cover of The Face magazine, shot by Corinne Day who will propel her to the forefront of the fashion world.
1992 Kate becomes the face of Obsession perfume by Calvin Klein. This naked photo of her is a landmark and shapes her image as a sulphurous young woman.
1995 The model multiplies the parades, from Chanel to Dior via Gucci. She was voted Fashion Personality of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.
2002 She poses nude with a pearl necklace and a newsboy cap to promote Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle perfume.
2003 She embodies the perfume Opium by Yves Saint Laurent. The “Cocaine Kate” scandal hasn’t happened yet, but fashion is drugging its curves.
2006 Agent Provocateur, the aptly named chic British lingerie brand, chooses Kate for their advertisements. Anything but a coincidence.
2008 From 2007 to 2010, Kate Moss signs fourteen capsule collections with the trendy English brand Topshop.
2011 Kate is once again on the cover of Elle, topless. She was then 37 years old and knew how to stay on top, a rare thing in the world of modeling.
2015 Kate continues to pose topless at 41 for Vogue Italy. She has also been under contract with the Spanish brand Mango since 2011.
2020 The model creates her own jewelry collection for the French high jewelry house Messika, by Kate Moss.
2021 Ex-reality TV star Kim Kardashian taps the twig to promote her Skims underwear line.
2022 Kate Moss, 48, is now one of the brand faces of celebrity make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury, alongside actress from the Netflix series The Bridgerton Chronicle Phoebe Dynevor, 26, and model Jourdan Dunn, 31 years old.
the indomitable
Isn’t the great Kate who wants… Her parents divorced when she was 13, just a year before the teenager was spotted at New York airport by modeling agent Sarah Doukas as she returned family vacation in the Bahamas. Already, fashion tickles the pretty blonde. Between classes and outings to the pub with friends, she loves to hunt around in thrift stores, which are legion in the British capital. It’s very simple, everything suits him. Her youthful face, shot by Corinne Day on the cover of Th e Fa ce newspaper, instantly made her one of the fashionable faces. Calvin Klein chooses her to embody its Obsession fragrance, and she is propelled to the rank of megastar. Everyone wants it. His measurements, 84-58-89, with a height of 1.70 m for 53 kilos become the new Holy Grail for the whole grunge generation. At the time of glory of Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, she embodies the figure of the anti-top-model, casual and sulphurous. There is Naomi Campbell, whose strong character will be talked about, but she is certainly not up to the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll lifestyle of which Kate will quickly become the icon. However, at its beginnings, all is not rosy, far from it. Kate often cries before shoots. She even told Reader’s Digest magazine in February 2021 that she often felt “terribly uncomfortable” during naked shots. Her friend, photographer Mario Testino, who published a book about her in 2010, even swears that she is shy and that he comforted her several times after fashion shows where she thought she hadn’t pleased the designer. Kate Moss, insecure, who would have believed it? However, it would be to forget a little quickly that she found herself, like a lot of her fellow models, uprooted from her family when she was only a teenager. Her character will allow her to bounce back and get out of the game. Even if she easily admits to being rarely punctual, she is very professional and she has another asset up her sleeve: she knows how to combine humor – yes, according to multiple sources , Kate is very funny – and unfailingly elegant. Even scruffy and with dripping mascara coming out of a staggering evening, she remains chic, trashy of course, but with that je-ne-sais-quoi that the fashion world adores. Kate drinks, smokes like a firefighter, takes drugs and goes out until the end of the night while staying cool. For a while, we think she’s calmed down when she settles down with journalist Jefferson Hack and gives birth to her daughter Lila Grace in 2002. But scandal suits her better than family life. Her modeling agency makes those who approach her sign confidentiality contracts, she follows rehab but always relapses, especially when she falls into the arms of singer Pete Doherty. No matter. Whatever she does, she fascinates. Artists make paintings of her that sell for millions or golden statues, one of them will even be exhibited in the British Museum. Now a businesswoman, she became a designer for the Topshop or Longchamp brands and in 2016 founded her own modeling and talent agency called Kate Moss Agency, which includes her daughter and singer Rita Ora. To get old ? Not even afraid. Kate finds her makeover with her darling, photographer Nikolai von Bismarck, thirteen years her junior. With him, she would have said she stopped the excesses. Kate power, on the other hand, is not afraid of an overdose.
A real faller
Johnny Depp 1994-1998
Anthony Langdon 1999
Jefferson Hack 2001-2004
Daniel Craig 2004
Pete Doherty 2005-2007
Rhys Ifans 2007
Jamie Hince 2007-2016
Kate has a hunting chart as rock as her. After a story with the photographer Mario Sorrenti, in 1994, she fell into the arms of the sexiest Hollywood actor of the moment, a certain Johnny Depp. Their couple with rebellious looks and a tumultuous relationship is the dream of the whole planet. They separated in 1998. She will seduce other actors, Antony Langdon, Rhys Ifans and even Daniel Craig according to rumour. In 2001, Jefferson Hack, journalist and editor-in-chief of Another Magazine calmed her down for a while, but she quickly regained a taste for the bohemian life she could lead with the rockers in the arms of Pete Doherty. He writes poems to her with his blood and says that everyday life with her is like the war in Afghanistan. In 2007, after yet another breakup which was finally the right one, she fell for The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince. They married on July 1, 2011, but divorced five years later.
Nikolai von Bismarck, her new prince!
Nikolai Leopold Archibald von Bismarck-Schönhausen. His full name is long and famous, no wonder since the young man thirteen years his junior comes from an aristocratic German family. He is even a count. With the young photographer, she begins a relationship based on parties and champagne, but when the latter decides to return to rehab shortly after their meeting in 2017, Kate follows suit. Now she goes to bed at 11 p.m. Miracle of love.
Lila Grace, the next generation
Kate is close and more than proud of her only daughter Lila Grace who will celebrate her 20th birthday on September 29, 2022. The latter follows in the footsteps of her mother who is never far from her since she takes care of her modeling career with the Kate Moss Agency. In 2018, she became the face of Marc Jacobs’ beauty product line (a mom’s friend) and walked the catwalks with her sulky pout and her fine, diaphanous features. Like Mother like daughter !
The Queen of Scandals
The tornado Kate finds her alter ego through Johnny Depp in the 90s. There are countless hotel suites ransacked by terrible lovers. But the public climax of the twig’s bad girl career came in September 2005 with the release of a video showing her whipping up lines of cocaine on the back of a CD case in her darling Pete’s studio. Doherty. For someone who said they don’t take drugs, that doesn’t make her feel good. The video goes around the world. How to calm her down for good?
Twig makes excuses, but she continues to abuse. When she finally decides to quit cocaine, she swaps the drug for liters of champagne. Relatives even report that she drank as soon as she woke up. A past a priori over.
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