It was the look that made Kate Moss famous: pale skin, slicked-back hair and – infamously – an extremely thin physique.
Now the supermodel has revealed the abuse she faced for her ‘heroin chic’ aesthetic. It’s horriable.
The 50-year-old, who became the poster girl for the trend in the Nineties, said that people would approach her in the street and accuse her of promoting eating disorders.
She told a new Disney+ documentary: ‘Parents would come up to me and say, “My daughter’s anorexic”. It was awful.
‘I think because I was just skinny, and people weren’t used to seeing skinny. But if I’d been more buxom, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. It’s just that my body shape was different from the models before me.’
The look became popular after the then 19-year-old posed in lingerie for the June 1993 issue of Vogue.
Describing the shoot with photographer Corinne Day, Ms Moss said: ‘I just felt really good. The whole shoot, I felt really comfortable, I loved creating the images. You know, it wasn’t glamorous. It was in my flat in London.’
‘Our bedroom was like a bedsit. That’s the kind of fashion I liked. It was much simpler.’
Reflecting on the backlash to the original photo, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in west London, fashion editor Catherine Kasterine told the documentary: ‘The public were not ready. They were absolutely appalled.
‘Immediately, the pictures were completely vilified and slammed. Perhaps we’d underestimated how that look had in our minds been quite normal.’
Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour said: ‘That look – very undernourished-looking model – made people uncomfortable.
‘Many of us at Vogue worried about heroin chic or anorexia, all the things that are associated with that look. It got to such a fever pitch. I remember physically being in the White House when the Clinton administration took the issue on.’
Ms Day, who died from a brain tumour in 2010, discovered Ms Moss at the age of 14 after seeing a Polaroid of her.
She described the Croydon-born schoolgirl as a ‘beauty’, adding: ‘There was also something quite ordinary about her. Her hair was a bit scraggy, and with no make-up she just looked like the girl next door.
‘I encouraged her to be natural. I’d chat to her and then take the pictures in the middle of the conversation.’
After appearing on the cover of The Face magazine in 1990, Ms Moss appeared in campaigns for Levi’s and Calvin Klein.
She sparked controversy two years later when she posed topless with then-rapper Mark Wahlberg in an advert for Calvin Klein jeans.
She told the documentary: ‘It was quite overwhelming. I was 18, you know, he was a big superstar rapper, and I still felt like I was just a girl from Croydon. They asked me to be topless. It was just a lot of people on set, a lot of men. I did feel vulnerable.’
Ms Moss, who has since appeared on 30 Vogue covers, also infamously quipped that ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ in 2009.
She has since tried to distance herself from the comments, which were used by several pro-anorexia websites, claiming it was just a ‘little jingle’ her housemate used to say.
The documentary In Vogue: The 90s, which will start streaming on Friday, is a star-studded look at the fashion industry during the decade.
It speaks to former Vogue editors including Edward Enninful and celebrities such as supermodel Naomi Campbell, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
It also features designer Stella McCartney who revealed the advantage she had being the daughter of The Beatles star Paul.
Describing her graduation show from Central St Martin’s fashion school in London, Ms McCartney recalled: ‘All the other students were choosing their models, then they were getting their mates. I had mates, but my mates were the supermodels.
‘I was like, ‘Everyone’s gonna hate me if I do that…’ but life’s too short, and they were genuinely my mates. Those girls were the hottest girls on the planet. They were doing every show in every city, and they did a little college fashion show, for me. That was amazing.’
Ms Campbell, who took part in the show, said: ‘I don’t think anyone’s ever had a graduation like that. I’ve never seen any graduate from St Martin’s have their collection on the front cover of every single newspaper.’
Ms Moss, who also took part in the show, said: ‘We were just hanging out in Notting Hill, going to the same bars or restaurants or whatever, and I didn’t know she was a McCartney.
‘Then I saw her driving around in a Mercedes, and I was like, ‘She’s at college. How could she afford that?’ Then she told me – and then she asked me to do her graduate show.’
Ms McCartney, 52, said that the show sparked a backlash from her fellow students, adding: ‘As [I was] the child of such famous people, it became this whole drama. I was like, ‘Agghhh, get me out of here.’
She later took over at fashion house Chloe from superstar designer Karl Lagerfeld.
After learning she would be his successor, Ms McCartney claims he said: ‘I knew they’d take a big name to fill my boots, but I thought they’d use a big name in fashion, not music.’ She added: ‘Oooof, b****!’
The show also features former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham who revealed she was ‘completely obsessed’ with supermodel Linda Evangelista.
She added: ‘[Ms Evagelista] was the reason why I cut my hair, the reason why I dyed my hair lots of different colours. I was in New York, and I went to Garren, who was Linda’s hairdresser. When he cut all my hair off. I was channeling my inner Linda.’
Posh Spice, 50, also reveals how fashion brought her and her husband, David Beckham together.
‘When I first met David in 1997, he’d heard that I was the Spice Girl that liked the designer clothes,’ she said. ‘So after me going to a couple of football matches – I would say I was pursuing him, he’d probably say it was me stalking him – we arranged to go out on a date together.
‘He thought, ‘She’s the one who likes designer clothes,’ and so he actually went out and bought himself a full Prada look for our first date to impress me. Which it did.’
While Ms Moss was once famed for her heroin chic aesthetic, she now champions health and wellness.
The star has founded her own wellness brand called Cosmoss where she sells a variety of beauty products with quirky names like ‘Sacred Mist’ and ‘Golden Nectar’.
She has also taken up the practice of ‘moonbathing’ – lying under the light of the moon in order to absorb its lunar energy – and believes in the power of crystals.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: ‘I put all my crystals on a tray and put them outside in the garden,’ she said. ‘Just cleansing the crystal, charging the crystals.’
Previously describing her happy place as on the dancefloor, Ms Moss has since left London for the west Oxfordshire countryside where she practices transcendental meditation and goes wild swimming in a ‘secret place’ only the local villagers use.
The fashion icon also believes in the power of positive affirmations to improve one’s outlook with ’embrace the unknown’ and ‘trust the universe and it will lead the way’ being among her favourites.
Despite her new Gwyneth Paltrow-like lifestyle, Ms Moss still allows herself one vice.
‘I still smoke occasionally,’ she said. ‘I’ve heard that when you stop, you can really tell [by your skin]. But I haven’t stopped… yet.’
In the interview earlier this year, the model admitted she is in ‘denial’ about her upcoming 50th birthday because she does not feel her age.
‘I’m not turning 50,’ she said. ‘No. I’m not thinking about it. I do not feel 50.’
Briefly discussing her party days, Kate told how she now never stays out at a party past midnight, describing it as her ‘cut off point’.
Ms Moss’ beauty products, made from ‘potent, natural substances’, are split into three daily rituals which are said to balance the ‘body and soul with the natural environment and the circadian cycles’.
The website describes these rituals as enabling us to ‘adjust to the rhythm of nature, help us find inner peace and self-fulfilment, and open a door to balance, restoration and love’.
The full three rituals cost more than £400, while the popular Golden Nectar serum – which contains the ‘mythical’ tears of Chios, a plant resin produced on the Greek island – has a £105 price tag.
The dawn ritual, which fills the body with ‘positive energy’, costs a total of £287 and includes a £21 antioxidant ‘dawn tea’, a £52 cleanser and £95 anti-ageing face cream.
It is then finished with the £120 Sacred Mist eau de parfum which ‘envelopes you with its hypnotic yet grounding fragrance’ to ‘provide a sense of inner peace’.
Earlier this year, the Daily Mail revealed that Ms Moss had won a legal battle with a pharmaceutical firm over the name of her brand Cosmoss.
It means she has trademarked Cosmoss for ranges such as herbal preparations for medicinal purposes, plus food and mineral supplements in her latest venture.
‘Kate has huge ambitions for the Cosmoss brand,’ the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden was told at the time.
It is then finished with the £120 Sacred Mist eau de parfum which ‘envelopes you with its hypnotic yet grounding fragrance’ to ‘provide a sense of inner peace’.
Disney+ documentary In Vogue will showcase rare, never-before-seen archives from key figures in the industry and reveal the untold story of the decade’s most celebrated pop cultural moments and movements.
Other contributors will include designers Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier, actress Claire Danes, models Amber Valetta and Tyson Beckford, director Baz Luhrmann and politician Hillary Clinton.
The new series was announced by The Walt Disney Company EMEA at the Edinburgh TV Festival last year.
