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| Kate Moss |
Kate Moss was born in Addiscombe, Croydon, London to Linda Rosina (Shepherd), a barmaid, and Peter Edward Moss, a travel agent. Kate has a younger brother named Nick and a half-sister named Lottie (Charlotte) and half-brother. Moss' parents divorced when she was 13. She attended Ridgeway Primary School and Riddlesdown Collegiate, but most commonly known as Riddlesdown High School, in Purley. She was not noted for her academic success but she did excel at sports.
Career
Kate Moss was discovered in 1988 at the age of 14 by Sarah Doukas, the founder of Storm Model Management, at JFK Airport in New York City, after a holiday in the Bahamas. Moss's career began when Corinne Day shot black-and-white photographs of her, styled by Melanie Ward, for British magazine The Face when she was 16, in a photo shoot titled "The 3rd Summer of Love". Kate Moss then went on to become the "anti-supermodel" of the 1990s in contrast to the "supermodels" of the moment, such as Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, who were known for their curvaceous and tall figures.
Kate Moss was voted 9th in Maxim's "50 Sexiest Women of 1999" and 22nd in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women of 1995". Men's magazine Arena named her as their Sexiest Woman in their 150th issue. She was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses". In March 2007, Kate Moss won the Sexiest Woman NME Award. She made her first appearance in the British women's Sunday Times Rich List in 2007, where she was estimated to be worth £45 million. She ranked as the 99th richest woman in Britain. In the 2009 Rich List, she was ranked as the 1,348th richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £40 million.
In July 2007, earning an estimated total of $9 million in the past 12 months, Forbes magazine named her second on the list of the World's 15 top-earning models list.
Style
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| Kate Moss |
In addition to being known for her modelling work, Kate Moss is also an international fashion icon. She has garnered many awards for her style, including the Council of Fashion Designers of America's fashion influence award and a place on the Vanity Fair international best-dressed list. In the early part of the 21st century, she was, together with actress Sienna Miller, one of the main proponents of boho-chic. She appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's September 2006 style issue. In recent years, she has popularised denim cutoff shorts, Ugg boots, ballet flats, Vivienne Westwood Pirate Boots, skinny jeans, waistcoat, Alexander McQueen's skull scarf, Louis Vuitton's Sprouse Leopard Cashmere Scarf, and the Balenciaga handbag.
In 2008, Kate Moss was added to PETA's 'Worst-Dressed' Celebrities of 2008' because of her frequent use of fur.
Campaigns
Kate Moss has had campaigns with major Italian, French, American, and British designers including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Chanel, 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 British Vogue 30 times, in addition to dozens of other international Vogue covers, and has been featured on the cover of 17 issues of W, including one issue with nine different covers that featured the model. W even names Kate Moss its muse (September 2003 issue). She has worked with the most well-known photographers in the fashion industry, such as Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Klein, Juergen Teller, and Peter Lindbergh, and won the prestigious Vogue/CFDA award from the Fashion Designers of America in July 2005 as Fashion Inspiration.
April 2005 saw the launch of the Rimmel London mascara TV ad featuring a leather-clad Kate Moss riding a motorbike through London to the sound of the rock song "Another Cold Beer" by Steven Crayn, an advertising campaign that is still running.
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| Kate Moss |
According to Forbes, Kate Moss has earned more money since her cocaine scandal than ever before: her 2004–2005 earnings were $5 million and her 2005–2006 earnings were $8 million. In 2007, with estimated earnings of $9 million, she was the second highest paid model in the world, behind Gisele Bündchen.
In November 2006, Kate Moss won the Model of the Year prize at the British Fashion Awards, the top accolade in British fashion, but the award divided opinion and stirred fresh controversy.
On 27 September 2007, The Sun published a story entitled, "Kate Moss dumped by seven brands", describing her "cocaine honeymoon" as fading away. The story continues by stating that in autumn 2006 she had eighteen contracts in comparison to 2007's eleven, and that in 2006 fashion bible Vogue had six campaigns using Kate Moss including Dior, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, but November 2007's issue has none. The story concludes by saying that an industry source has said "She is still very big but the honeymoon period has ended."
Fashion designer
On 1 May 2007, a collection of clothes designed by Kate Moss exclusively for the Topshop chain were launched across the UK in the chain's 225 stores. A Kate Moss "countdown to launch" board filled a window of the company's flagship Oxford Street store and on 30 April, Moss launched the clothing line at Topshop in Oxford Street, where she briefly appeared in the shop window modelling a red dress from the clothing collection just before the shop was opened, causing a media frenzy. Topshop reportedly paid Moss £3 million for her work. The collection of fifty designs included clothes, bags, shoes and belts, where prices range from £12 for a vest top to £150 for a cropped leather jacket. Clothes in the collection included skinny jeans, one-shoulder minidresses and T-shirts with the letter K woven into the design. The Topshop range was later released in the United States at the New York chain store Barneys.
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| Kate Moss |
Other endeavours
Kate Moss appeared on Oasis singles "Don't Go Away" (1998) and "Fade Away" (1994), and on the Be Here Now album (1997), playing tambourine, Johnny Depp playing a guitar.
Kate Moss has appeared in music videos such as "Kowalski" by Primal Scream, "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" by the White Stripes, "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" by Elton John, "Sex with Strangers" by Marianne Faithfull, "Love Don't Bother Me" by Stage Dolls, and "Delia's Gone" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash.
Kate Moss has also provided vocals for songs by Primal Scream (the 2003 version of "Some Velvet Morning"), Babyshambles ("La Belle et la Bête") and The Lemonheads ("You're a Dirty Robot"). Prior to breaking up with Pete Doherty, Kate Moss co-wrote four songs on Babyshambles' second album Shotter's Nation—"You Talk", "French Dog Blues", "Baddie's Boogie", and "Deft Left Hand".
In 1999, Kate Moss played a non-musical role in the British screen comedy Blackadder: Back & Forth, appearing both as Maid Marian and as a fictional Queen of England "who looks good naked". Director and writer Richard Curtis said in the making of video, that they wanted "the best looking woman in England" to play the role.
Kate Moss has also been the subject of portraits by contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud and Chuck Close. In 2005, a painting of Kate Moss by Freud sold for £3.93 million at a Christie's auction. Close has taken a series of daguerreotypes of Moss, which he has also translated into Jacquard tapestry.
In September 2010, Kate Moss appears as a mythological goddess in a 3D film created by AnOther Magazine.
In October 2010, Kate Moss appeared on the cover of Bryan Ferry's album Olympia.
Charity work
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| Kate Moss |
Kate Moss has also helped to launch the SamandRuby charity in March 2006. The charity was started to provide funding for the education and shelter of Thai children. The SamandRuby organisation is named after a friend of Moss's, Samantha Archer Fayet, and her 6-month-old daughter Ruby Rose who were killed by the Tsunami while visiting Thailand. Moss also supports the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Hoping Foundation, the Lucie Blackman Trust, Make Poverty History, Comic Relief and Homes of Hope.
On 22 November 2006, Kate Moss recorded an appearance in a Little Britain sketch for Comic Relief at the Hammersmith Apollo as a character called Katie Pollard, sister of Vicky Pollard played by Matt Lucas.
Kate Moss made a short film with Misery Bear for the March 2011 Comic Relief event entitled "Misery Bear's Comic Relief Starring Kate Moss".
Personal life
Kate Moss has a daughter, Lila Grace Moss, born on 29 September 2002, with Dazed & Confused editor Jefferson Hack.
Kate Moss had a relationship with former Libertines member Pete Doherty, first meeting him at her 31st birthday party in January 2005. On 11 April 2007, Doherty announced Moss as his fiancée during one of his concerts in London, at which Moss also performed. In July 2007, Moss and Doherty split. She was due to model on the catwalk for John Galliano, but was too distraught with her break-up to participate.
Kate Moss dated Jamie Hince, guitarist for The Kills. The Sun reported on 26 March 2008, that Moss and Hince became engaged during a trip to Amsterdam. Hince proposed to her in bed with a vintage 1920s ring worth more than £10,000. Kate Moss married Hince on 1 July 2011 at St Peter's Church, Southrop in Gloucestershire; she wore a dress by John Galliano.
