It’s hard to believe that the waifish 14-year-old who took the modelling world by storm in the ‘90s is now 40. Kate Moss celebrated her milestone birthday earlier this year but shows no sign of fading into obscurity. Not just a pretty face, she’s also gained recognition for her fashion collections, not to mention the media controversy and her tumultuous personal life.
Despite the media attention, Kate is a private person, shying away from social media and she loathes to give interviews. Because of this, much of her life remains a mystery to the general public. A new book, “Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the 90’s Renegades Who Remade Fashion” by Maureen Callahan attempts to lift the lid on some of her secrets but you can get started with the 10 below:
1. Kate has a tattoo of two swallows that was inked onto her lower back by acclaimed German painter Lucian Freud (the grandson of famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud). The tattoo is estimated to be worth millions. Freud also painted a portrait of a pregnant and nude Kate Moss that sold at auction for £3.9 million.
2. She bought her own engagement ring – her husband Jamie Hince, Guitarist for The Kills, couldn’t quite match Kate’s multimillion earnings at the time and so she bought her dream engagement ring (a diamond copy of the one worn by Ella Fitzgerald) herself from a Bond Street jeweller.
3. Kate loves magic and convinced Stella McCartney to hire Dutch illusionist, Hans Klok for a show at London Fashion Week, after she’d seen him perform on the One Show on BBC. Kate was originally intended to be the magician’s assistant for the act, which included levitation, a guillotine and sawing in half tricks, but she had to pull due to an arm injury and was replaced by Alexa Chung.
4. She has a penchant for luxury cars (both modern and vintage) and has owned vehicles including a Range Rover, an MG Midget, a vintage Rolls Royce and her very own London cab.
5. Kate’s eyes may look perfect but she actually suffers from a defect called strabismus which causes her eyes to look in two different directions.
6. She’s a bit of a muse to many popular musicians – her ex Pete Doherty included mentions of her in many of her lyrics but there are also references to Kate in Everything’s Just Wonderful by Lily Allen, Thanks for the Ether by Rasputina and she’s provided vocals for tracks for Babyshambles, Primal Scream and The Lemonheads. She’s also appeared in many music videos by Oasis, Primal Scream, the White Stripes, Elton John, Marianne Faithfull, Stage Dolls, Jonny Cash and Paul McCartney.
7. Kate married guitarist Jamie Hince in 2011. Her dress was designed by John Galliano and Manolo Blahnik made her shoes five times to make sure they were perfect.
8. Kate has a benevolent spirit and is often involved with charity initiatives. She read a passage of 50 Shades of Grey to raise money for Comic Relief in 2013, designed a necklace to support Cancer Research in 2007 and launched a charity to provide funding for Thai schoolchildren after her friend and 6-month-old daughter were swept away in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. She’s also supported War Child, the Elton John AIDS foundation, the Lucie Blackman Trust, Make Poverty History and Homes of Hope.
9. She infuriated then-boyfriend, Jamie Hince, a strict vegan of 20 years, by buying a new rabbit-skin throw for their shared bed. Hince later admitted he’d been tempted away from veganism by Kate serving him a bacon sandwich in her underwear.
10. Kate is known well for her signature ash-blonde hair, but it’s not her natural colour. She’s actually a brunette and reverted to her natural shade in 2013 for Versace. She also sported pink locks back in 1998 for a Juergen Teller shoot.
