And by now she was dating Hollywood legends and of course partying like one- because that is after all what you do when you become one yourself right? Or was just partying, and dating the affluent and the celebrated part of the rigors of being one of the most sought after models?
By now the wear and tear was beginning to seep in. The two packs a day habit, the long drinking sessions and of course the long sniffing sessions. A typical model’s life or just something a successful model afforded herself?
By 2000 even Kate Moss had had enough of the ‘cynical’ fashion world only to be tempted with more riches to return and as it appears once again pick up the bad habits that led to her being sidelined in the first place. But this is high fashion and everyone was a star, and even stars are allowed to believe in the myth of invincibility.
How telling that Kate Moss should reveal that modeling is often far from thrilling, and that she had turned to drink and drugs. When you think about it – what’s so thrilling about walking down a plank with some designers clothes? Or standing there in a studio as a photographer demands you give him another pout? Are you saving lives, finding marvel in one’s creativity, coming closer to some divinity? Or just very fortunate to earn a lot of money for simply looking the way you do? Assuming you can hold onto your looks. Assuming you want to that is…
And now Kate Moss hits 30, and decides to recreate her birthday celebrations in the guise of one of the most tragic literary heroes of our times- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby- doomed to seek the eternal green light which only leads to his eventual capitulation. Kate Moss’ drinking and partying ways are now really beginning to take off…
By 2005 the fashion world is put into high alert by Kate Moss’ uncontrollable behavior. She loses her account with H&M, but her friendship with Karl Lagerfeld proves too strong for the girl to be all together cast off. But the illusion has begun to be shattered and what may have once been a secret in the fashion world was now common news- Kate Moss was becoming a louche and a junkie. Fodder for so many girls in the fashion world if one looks around.
Miraculously the money is still piling in, the public myth machine in overdrive and as many opportunities Kate can cast her net at. She is forever the eternal girl, the symbol of our desire for immortality and youth. But the myth of Kate is beginning to fast erode…
And perhaps a brief respite, or is this all just the work of some very clever make up?
And finally the capitulation is too evident. No make up can hide the tar, the disfigurement on her teeth after years of smoking, the jowls beginning to appear from continual excesses and the famed cheekbones are now round puffs.
In many ways Kate Moss now resembles a middle aged woman who had her run but after years of turbulence and initiation in the fashion world has morphed into the way in fact so many women her age look like- despite the fact that she could lay claim she was once the most beautiful women in the world.
But then again looks have always said to be fleeting- the ultimate irony on the head of a former revered fashion model.
