The glamourous life of Kate Moss is filled with her own darkness. She may have soared to new heights when she was a mere teenager but supermodel fame comes with a price. Moss opens up about many uncomfortable moments during the early days of her career that left her feeling sexualized.
Despite such incidents, she went on to join the likes of Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, and Elle MacPherson as one of the golden supermodels of the 1990s.
Kate Moss Was Asked To “Take Her Bra Off” When She Was 15
The supermodel was already a star at the age of 14. The British model had signed a contract with the ‘Storm’ modeling agency in 1988. It began her journey where she attended castings across London using an A-Z Atlas. Though as exciting as this experience was, its darker side had pushed her to the deep end. The supermodel recalls an incident during her appearance on ‘Desert Island Discs,’ with host Lauren Laverne that “sharpened her instincts”.
“I had a horrible experience for a bra catalogue. I was only 15 probably and he said, ‘Take your top off’ and I took my top off. And I was really shy then about my body,” she explained. “And he said ‘Take your bra off’ and I could feel there was something wrong so I got my stuff and I ran away.” Moss continued, “I think it sharpened my instincts. I can tell a wrong ‘un a mile away.”
Moss’ earliest editorial covers were for ‘Face‘ magazine in 1990 when she was 16. The model appeared on the cover twice that year, first in May and again in July. Speaking about the July cover, which was shot by late photographer Corinne Day, Moss said it was one of her “painful” memories. “That scrunched up nose that is on the cover, she would say, ‘Snort like a pig’ to get that picture,” she said of Day. “And I would be like, ‘I don’t want to snort like a pig’ and she would be like, ‘Snort like a pig, that’s when it looks good’.”
Moss Believes Naked Photoshoots Changed Her Career
In one photograph from the same shoot, Moss appears naked. Though she covers her body using her hands and a beach hat. While in another, she appears topless wearing a feathered headdress. The star said she “cried a lot” during the shoot because she wasn’t comfortable posing naked.
“I didn’t want to take my top off. I was really, really self-conscious about my body and she would say, ‘If you don’t take your top off I am not going to book you for Elle’, and I would cry,” she claimed.
She further added, “It is quite difficult. It is painful because she was my best friend and I really loved her – but she was a very tricky person to work with. But you know, the pictures are amazing so she got what she wanted and I suffered for them, but in the end they did me a world of good really. They did change my career.”
The icon now owns a namesake modeling agency, through which she manages her 19-year-old daughter Lila. She said she ensures Lila and other models have a more comfortable experience than her own.
“I have said to her [Lila], ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,’” she said. “If you don’t want to do this shoot, if you don’t feel comfortable, if you don’t want to model, don’t do it.” She explained, “I take care of my models. I make sure they are with agents at shoots so when they are being taken advantage of, there is someone there to say, ‘I don’t think that’s appropriate.’I don’t know if that’s across the board but that’s what I can do.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Moss spoke candidly about feeling like a “scapegoat” during the early 2000s. At that time she also faced criticism for “glorifying” being thin and using drugs.
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