After appearing in Corinne Day’s grungy black-and-white shoot on the beach for The Face in 1990, Kate Moss entered the nation’s consciousness. Almost immediately, the 16-year-old model popularised the '90s ‘heroin chic’ trend.
A Calvin Klein campaign swiftly followed, catapulting the young model to superstardom. At an Elite Models party in 1993, Kate was photographed by paparazzi for the very first time, wearing her incredibly iconic see-through slip dress. 'It was the first time I really got papped,’ Kate has since said. ‘I had no idea why everyone was so excited — in the darkness of Corinne's (Day) Soho flat, the dress was not see-through!”
In the early noughties, Kate gave birth to her daughter, Lila, whose father is Jefferson Hack. Later that decade, however, she became known as the grungy party girl who was in a tumultuous, on-off relationship with The Libertines front man Pete Doherty. The couple were known for their public rows, penchant for festivals and alcohol and drug-fuelled antics, which led to a leaked photograph of Kate taking cocaine. Kate’s career and image were tarnished, and she was dropped from several fashion campaigns, including H&M, Chanel and Burberry.
But it wasn't long before Kate ditched her grungy aesthetic for high-class vintage. Over the next decade, she continued to pick up countless campaigns with Chanel, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen to name a few.
In 2011, the supermodel married The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince in vintage Galliano in a dreamy Cotswold bash. The marriage ended in 2016, and Kate is now in a committed relationship with aristo photographer Nikolai von Bismarck.
Today, Kate cuts a very different image from the party girl of the Nineties. The supermodel, who is 46 today, has given up smoking and drinking (despite once being known as ‘The Tank’ because she drank so much). Her fashion career is still as rich as it was when she started: in December, she shot a Christian Dior campaign in Miami, a wintery Coach campaign in November and a blustery autumnal campaign for Alexander McQueen in July. Long may the reign of queen Kate last.