Katherine Ann Moss (born January 16, 1974) is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the “supermodel era,” Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status. She is known for her waifish figure, and role in size zero fashion.
Moss has had her own clothing range, has been involved in musical projects, and is also a contributing fashion editor for British Vogue. In 2012, she came second on the Forbes top-earning models list, with estimated earnings of $9.2 million in one year. The accolades she has received for modeling include the 2013 British Fashion Awards acknowledging her contribution to fashion over 25 years, while Time named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2007.
Kate Moss was recruited as a model in 1988 at age 14 by Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Management, at JFK Airport in New York, after a holiday in The Bahamas. Corinne Day shot black-and-white photographs of her, styled by Melanie Ward, for The Face when she was 16, in a shoot titled “The 3rd Summer of Love.” Moss was presented as a young unknown, and Day described the pictures as “dirty realism” or “grunge.”
Moss then featured in the Levi’s campaign ‘Levi’s for Girls,’ with great success, set up by The Design Corporation and again shot by Corinne Day. A further shoot followed for The Face, by Tony Briggs, entitled “Haute Coiffure,” Moss went on to become the “anti-supermodel” of the 1990s in contrast to the models of the moment, such as Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, who were known for curvaceous and tall figures.
Moss featured in the fashion look heroin chic in 1996 (which prompted speculation over her weight) with a campaign for Calvin Klein. Then-US President Bill Clinton spoke out against the trend. Moss said, “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?’”
Below are some adorable photos of Kate Moss when she was a kid in the early 1980s: