British supermodel Kate Moss has made a heartbreaking confession about a topless fashion shoot she did when she was just 15 years old, resulting in an emotional scar she still carries to this day.
The Croydon, south London-born supermodel, 50, has proudly shown off her body many times since she was first discovered in 1988 by Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Model Management, at age 14, but one shoot from her past continues to leave the star in tears.
In a recent interview, Kate explained that the iconic photoshoot for The Face fashion magazine may have launched her career, but the pictures taken by the late photographer Corinne Day are difficult to look back on.
Revealing that she was self-conscious prior to the shoot due to a mole on her right breast and the fact that she was so young, she said: ‘I still, even after that shoot, I did cry a lot about taking my clothes off with her.’ She added: ‘I really didn’t want to do it.’
She added that during the shoot, she was able to have some say and even asked a team member to turn around: ’At the time, it was me, Corinne, Drew Jarett, the hairdresser, and Dick Page, the make-up artist. So I would make Drew turn around because he was straight and I was, like, “I’m not having him look at me”. I was really shy.’
The star, who has since gone on to have one the most successful modelling careers in history, told Bella Freud on the designer’s new podcast, Fashion Neurosis, that there was a dark side to her early years in the modelling world, including being told that if she didn’t pose topless, she wouldn’t be booked for another job.
‘At a very young age, I started doing pictures topless, and I was very conscious that I have a mole on my right t**, and I hated it so much I would cry,’ she said. ‘I never wanted to be topless. I would cry, and I had to get over it because the photographer was, like, “If you don’t do this, I’m not going to book you for the next job”, so I had to get over it.’
Kate continued to say: ‘Your body’s not really your own when you’re a vessel for somebody else’s imagination.’
In addition to her own thoughts and feelings toward the topless shoots, Kate revealed that those early years of fame, particularly The Face shoot, had an impact on her family and may have affected her brother, Nick Moss, more than her as they were both still at school.
‘I was 15 and topless in a magazine, and I was still at school,’ Kate pointed out. ‘They took the p**s out of my brother, like, “Your sister’s got her t**s out”. I think he probably suffered more than I did about it.’
Despite her scarring start in the modelling world, Kate says the industry has been hugely supportive, particularly during her more difficult moments, which included when photographs of her in a studio with boyfriend Pete Doherty were made public and a newspaper claimed she was doing drugs.
Calling her ‘Cocaine Kate’, British tabloids published the pictures in 2005, with the fallout being that Kate lost her £1million H&M contract and went on to book herself into rehab.
‘When I had a bit of scandal, I had so much support from people in the fashion business,’ she said on the podcast. ‘[As] soon as I was able to get back to work, I got booked by everybody. They were, like, “No, we’re not going to let them cancel you”.’
Kate’s career is still one of the most successful in the modelling industry. She has been named one of the world’s highest-paid models and topped Forbes’ list in 2018, earning £9 million.
Despite retiring from the runway in 2004, she has made a handful of appearances in recent years, including the Victoria’s Secret runway last month with her daughter, Lila, Bottega Veneta in 2022, and the Fendace extravaganza in 2021, among others.