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On (too many) occasions it can seem that the world refuses to give second chances (especially when we talk about a woman), but cases like Kate Moss's show that there are exceptions capable of making Olympus the final destination after descending in free fall from heaven to hell. The British actress turns 50 on January 16, a round date that, however, is not the one that gives her the title of icon, as she has held it for years. We are talking about a model who is part not only of the history of fashion, but also of pop culture; Someone who has worked with the biggest names in that complicated industry and who has entered the universe of the tabloids for his love affairs with icons of cinema and music, his flirtations with drugs and his blunders, which few stars can afford.

The Magic of Difference

Loved by fashionista references, idolized by the new generations and known by all, Moss is the all-terrain supermodel who changed (for better or worse: we prefer to keep our mouths shut) the canons of beauty by imposing heroin chic (a healthy term if there is one, by the way) and who made and still makes daring her ace up her sleeve. Who but she would dare to go out smoking at the closing of the 2011 Louis Vuitton show, when smoke was especially demonized and she had been away from the catwalks for seven years? What other model could have had such an unnormative physique in the age of curves and perfection and, despite everything, become the benchmark of fashion?

An image that is already mythical. After seven years of retirement from the catwalk, in 2011, Kate Moss stepped onto the Louis Vuitton catwalk, where she appeared smoking a cigarette.

"It wasn't particularly tall. Her features were not voluptuous, and she lacked the toothpaste-advertisement smile that so many young women had. To top it all off, his teeth were crooked. Her lips looked like rosebuds, but they weren't generous, they were pursed. Her complexion was youthful, but not flawless, and her bone structure, though quite pretty, and much admired in the years that followed, did not particularly surprise David Ross. But Kate was a physical rebellion against the style, looks, and fashion of the time. Neither Kate nor Ross must have known then that this was an entirely accidental rebellion." With those words, Laura Collins describes in 'Kate Moss: The Complete Picture' the beginning of the photo shoot that changed the model's career. We are referring, of course, to the photos in which at the age of 18 she was the image of Calvin Klein with Mark Wahlberg, a curious couple that was captured by David Ross, who as we have observed, at first doubted the charm of the British woman.

CALVIN KLEIN

The campaign was controversial due to the thinness of the model, who posed topless next to the actor, and it took many years for us to discover that in those snapshots there was not only legend, but also darkness. "He was very macho, and it was all about him," Moss said of Wahlberg, who she said had made her feel "vulnerable and scared." She also confessed that during the photo shoot she felt objectified. Four years earlier she had been discovered in that very film-like way with which many models were born for fashion, with curious stories where coincidences ruled. She was 14 years old when Sarah Doukas, founder of the modeling agency Storm, noticed her at New York's JFK airport. If at the age of 18 she was the image of Klein, a year after the well-known underwear campaign she made her debut in the British edition of 'Vogue', in 1993, and two months later she made her first cover with the same publication.

With the later defenestrated designer John Galliano at Paris Fashion Week in 2004. Both were in all their glory then. GTRES

Kate Moss's success was anything but predictable, as Collins explains when talking about her debut on the catwalk in 1989, at the age of 15 and at the hands of John Galliano. "Kate was really too short for the runway: she was about 10 centimetres shorter than most of the girls she would share the runway with, but Galliano, like Sarah Doukas, had a hunch and bet on her. It certainly helped that Kate, hard-working and unknown, was willing to work for little more than her train ticket and have the chance to experience something more exciting than another day in Croydon, her hometown. Galliano had to adjust her clothes: everything was too big for her. Backstage, the other models glanced sideways at this cheerful runway newbie. While they carried Chanel bags and wore Alaia bandage dresses, Kate wore jeans and a tank top," she writes. Kate Moss caused a furor at the show and of course, John Galliano opted for her as a model to present his next collection. Since then, they have been inseparable. As if that wasn't enough, that same year Moss was on the cover of the cult magazine 'The Face'.

Stumbling and knowing how to stand up to show your chest

Her fashion know-how has not only been evident on the catwalks, but also as a designer. It was 2007 when he launched his first collection for Topshop at a time when celebrity collections were not common. Her designs were so successful that she repeated the experience in 2014 and managed to make everyone want a piece of Kate's wardrobe, the one in which there was no lack of Hunter boots, because we cannot forget that the images of the model wearing tiny shorts at the Glastonbury Festival, wearing the mythical boots, They made them the favourites even of the inhabitants in the warmest climates. It doesn't have to rain anymore to wear a pair of Hunters, and we owe it to her.

Kate Moss at the Glanstonbury Festival in 2005.

In 2005, at the peak of his career, the Daily Mirror newspaper published images of him clearly snorting cocaine. Contracts with the likes of Burberry, Chanel and H&M fell apart and many predicted the end of the supremacy of the British company, which launched the same strategy that had made it an icon of mystery: silence. "Kate is famous for many things, but few know that she has brilliant conversation and wit. The reason he rarely says anything in public is that he knows it would end his mystique. Kate is an enigma. It's a class act: behind his omniscient gaze there's not much more than the certainty that for his presence to be resounding, all he has to do is keep his mouth shut," says Brandon Hurst in 'Kate Moss. The making of a brand icon'.

Although brands such as Dior remained by his side after the scandal and the subsequent scare, the truth is that when he returned to fashion he did so to sweep the world. She won the title of Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards and to this day remains one of the highest paid and prestigious in the industry. She now has her own modeling agency, Kate Moss Agency, which she founded in September 2016 to make her experience her best ally. "I want to focus on managing people's careers, not just running an agency," he said. In this one there is another model almost as coveted as her: her daughter Lila Moss, already one of the most resounding names on the current fashion scene.

Burst out laughing as tycoon Richard Branson carries her on his back at the celebration of his airline's 25th anniversary. GTRES

Pants Messes

When talking about Lila Moss, and taking into account that at the beginning of the text we have alluded to the model's love affairs with icons of cinema and music, it is vital to stop at her sentimental life, the one that the press has always insisted on portraying, commenting on and of course, sometimes judging. Her love affair with Johnny Depp was like a movie crush, with the setting for that first meeting being the iconic New York Café Tabac. They became the fashionable couple of the 90s, until they ended their relationship in 1998, but their friendship remains so cordial that the model did not hesitate to testify in favor of the actor in the trial with Amber Heard, who claimed that Depp had thrown Moss down a flight of stairs in the past. In a teleconference, the model clarified that she had actually slipped on a staircase and injured her back during a vacation the couple was enjoying in Jamaica.

After dating Antony Langdon, guitarist of the band Spacehog, she dated the former editor of 'Dazed and Confused' magazine, Jefferson Hack. In September 2002, they had Lila Moss, and two years later, the couple separated.

Her most high-profile and controversial partner has been Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty, whom she met on her thirty-first birthday. The musician's turbulent life and substance abuse (he was part of the footage of Kate using cocaine) meant that the relationship did not prosper.

With Pete Doherty, her most controversial partner, in 2007.

Her love of musicians was once again clear when she married The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince in 2011 after four years of dating. Their wedding was a bohemian fantasy in which there was no shortage of 14 bridesmaids (including her daughter) and a Spanish fashionista touch, as the bridesmaids' ballerinas bore the seal of Pretty Ballerinas. The dress, of course, was signed by her friend John Galliano. The boho fantasy is still in our memory, but their love is not, because in 2015 the couple divorced. Kate Moss is currently dating Count and photographer Nikolai Von Bismarck, whom she has been dating since her divorce from Hince.

Humble origins, a meteoric rise, endless parties, ups and downs full of shimmers and shadows and, of course, fashion, make Moss's story a story that still has many chapters to write. The wonderful thing is that her story is not written by itself, but she is the one who shapes it, because although she does not have docuseries or reality shows in which to narrate her adventures, she has made sure that her measured silence speaks exactly what is right: what she wants. And because of that, Moss is more.

Silver Generation of the Runways

Naomi Campbell, Nieves Álvarez, Carla Bruni (from top to bottom), Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz..., names that built the fashion of the 90s and without which, as the critic Tim Blanks said, "nothing will ever be the same again". And that's despite the fact that, now that they have turned 50 or are going to do so in a few months, many are still on the catwalk and starring in the campaigns of the big brands. With their unbeatable know-how, they show that the issue is not about age, but about magic and power.

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