The enduring appeal of Kate Moss

The year was 1990. It was the “Third Summer of Love”, the Happy Mondays were chanting, “It’s gotta be a loose fit”, and it looked as though high heels would never again be worn by anyone under 30. Fashion culture was changing, and the freckle-faced girl wearing a feather headdress, love beads and little else on the July cover of The Face magazine was on her way to becoming one of the world’s most photographed women. Years later, early images of Kate Moss, as taken by the photographer Corinne Day, would be sold for between £5000 and £10,000. A bargain, as it turns out. In July this year, when Christie’s announced it would be auctioning photographs of the British supermodel that included works by Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, Bruce Weber and Mario Sorrenti, the estimated price tag for the collection was £1,000,000.

Moss is often compared to those earlier blank slates for dreams and desires of the time, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo. Seemingly capable of channelling any icon of any era, male or female, she recently appeared in UK Vogue as a sultry Brigitte Bardot, and has also “done” David Bowie. To complete the picture, she hangs out with icons and is particularly drawn to those, such as Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, who barely survived the decadent rock lifestyle of the 1970s. Unlike her pals, Moss wears the slightly tarnished image of rockstar-girlfriend-model well, a one-woman jet set who always looks like she’s with the band.