Kate Moss

Kate Moss (born 16 January 1974) is a British model.

Kate Moss was born on 16 January 1974 in Croydon, Greater London, the daughter of Linda Rosina Moss (née Shepherd), a barmaid, and Peter Edward Moss, an airline employee, and raised in the Addiscombe and Sanderstead areas of the borough.

She has a younger brother, Nick, and a half-sister named Lottie (Charlotte).

Moss's parents divorced when she was 13.

She attended Ridgeway Primary School and Riddlesdown High School (now Riddlesdown Collegiate) in Purley.

She worked several local retail jobs in her early teens.

Moss was recruited as a model in 1988 at age 14 by Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Management, at JFK Airport in New York, after a holiday in The Bahamas.

Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend.

Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status.

She is known for her waifish figure, and role in size zero fashion.

Moss has had her own clothing range, has been involved in musical projects, and is also a contributing fashion editor for British Vogue.

A further shoot followed for The Face, by Tony Briggs, entitled "Haute Coiffure", Moss went on to become the "anti-supermodel" of the 1990s in contrast to the models of the moment, such as Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, who were known for curvaceous and tall figures.

Moss featured in the fashion look heroin chic in 1996 (which prompted speculation over her weight) with a campaign for Calvin Klein.

Then-US President Bill Clinton spoke out against the trend.

Moss said, "It was just the time. It was a swing from more buxom girls like Cindy Crawford and people were shocked to see what they called a 'waif'. What can you say? How many times can you say 'I'm not anorexic'?"

A subject of media scrutiny due to her partying lifestyle, Moss was involved in a drug use scandal in September 2005, which led to her being dropped from fashion campaigns.

She was cleared of charges and soon resumed modelling.

On 20 September 2005, the Swedish fashion retailer H&M dropped her from its campaign of autumn clothes designed by Stella McCartney after pictures were published of Moss allegedly using cocaine.

The contract was reportedly worth £4 million a year.

A day later, Chanel said it would not renew its contract with Moss, which was to expire that October, although its decision had nothing to do with the drug scandal.

Burberry dropped Moss's campaign with them.

Moss apologised, though stopped short of admitting drug use.

Moss appeared in ad campaigns for Dior.

She was on the cover of the November 2005 W and also inside in a multi-page fashion shoot.

She was defended by designer Alexander McQueen, who, during his walk-out after a fashion show, wore a T-shirt saying "We love you Kate".

In March 2006, she appeared in the finale of his show The Widows of Culloden, as a life-sized illusion projected into a glass pyramid.

Artist Stella Vine also supported Moss, and paintings by Vine, painted during the scandal, were exhibited and reproduced in the press.

On 5 January 2006, the London Metropolitan Police asked Moss to return from the US to Britain to answer questions about the September 2005 cocaine scandal.

On 16 June 2006, British police dropped the charges for lack of evidence.

Ultimately, Moss was cleared of all charges and resumed her modelling career.

She has inspired cultural depictions including a £1.5m ($2.8m) 18 carat gold statue of her, sculpted in 2008 for a British Museum exhibition.

In 2012, she came second on the Forbes top-earning models list, with estimated earnings of $9.2 million in one year.

The accolades she has received for modelling include the 2013 British Fashion Awards acknowledging her contribution to fashion over 25 years, while Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2007.

In 2015 Moss was escorted off an EasyJet flight by police after she became disruptive.

Moss has been featured in ad campaigns with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Versace, Balenciaga, Burberry, Stuart Weitzman, Rag & Bone, Alexander Wang, David Yurman, Givenchy, Roberto Cavalli, Kerastase, Isabel Marant, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Equipment, Rimmel, and Bulgari.

She has been on the cover and in fashion spreads for most magazines including UK, US, and French Vogue (as well as other international versions of Vogue), Another Man, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, the Face, and W.

She has been on the cover of British Vogue 30 times, shot the inaugural covers for both Russian Vogue with Amber Valletta and Japanese Vogue, in addition to dozens of other international Vogue covers.

Corinne Day shot black-and-white photographs of her, styled by Melanie Ward, for The Face when she was 16, in a shoot titled "The 3rd Summer of Love".

Moss was presented as a young unknown, and Day described the pictures as "dirty realism" or "grunge".

Moss then featured in the Levi's campaign 'Levi's for Girls', with great success, set up by The Design Corporation and again shot by Corinne Day.