It's been quite clear for sometime that Kate Moss has been taking career steps to gradually phase out modelling as the main money-maker in her career. After that cocaine scandal in 2005 and a plethora of bad press, in true Moss fashion she kept her silence and the controversy only made the icon more notorious. The cocaine story only really increased her street cred and made her look more 'rock and roll' something I believe Kate wants. All the style groupies of the sixties Anita Pallenberg,Penny Tree and Marianne Faithfull clearly inspire Kate, with Faithfull even accusing Kate of taking credit for a style not all her own- ‘Now I see pictures of her with a boy who looks like Mick Jagger, and her looking like me. So there was a reason. It’s one of her gigs to do me,’ she told The Times. She continued on to call Kate a 'vampire' who stole her style. Well it looks like Kate is having the last laugh. Instead of replying to Marianne's rant through a press interview in the typical celebrity fashion she kept her silence as ever, and is now making a buck off her style. It seems 'Kate Moss- the brand' is only beginning.
For years die-hard fans like myself, had to feed our Moss addictions through grainy candids and articles. She rarely if ever gave interviews which created a mysterious and unattainable media personality that only left us thirsty for more. Arcadia boss Philip Green just so quenched our fashion thirst by teaming up with fellow Croydonite Kate to produce a collection for high street favourite TOPSHOP.
Just a few months after the release of her perfume 'Kate', hundreds of fashionistas-young and old queued up in their droves outside the many TOPSHOP branches all vying for a piece of Kate or rather, Kate 'inspired' clothes. The first line flew off the shelves and demand for a second collection was already evident. Customers could only buy five items of clothing at a time and many entrepreneurs did just that, whacked them up on ebay that evening to sell to international buyers without access to TOPSHOP, making huge profits. Perhaps it was those incidents that lead Philip Green to start shippping to the USA from Topshop.com which was now garnering hundreds of thousands of hits a day helped by the inclusion of the Kate Moss collection.
The success of international shipping and Kate Moss as a sort of TOPSHOP ambassador made both Philip Green and Kate Moss happy campers. Kate was moving away from modelling and stepping into a more entrepreneurial role. Rimmel London, who she had been the face of for many years hired both Lily Cole and Sophie Ellis-Bextor to model alongside Kate. Longchamp who snapped up Kate right after the cocaine scandal hired Ukrainian model Sasha Pivovarova to star alongside Kate in recent campaigns where before she had shot them alone. So where else was Kate to move from modelling than to designing? Never one to love tv interviews, presenting was out of the question. She knew everything she wore sold out quicker that you can say 'this in a size eight please' so clever Kate called up Philip Green and a match made in retail heaven was born. The Kate Moss for TOPSHOP collection is continually a great sucess. Although criticised for only suiting slim girls (what else would you expect from a Kate Moss collection in fairness) little Miss Business woman Kate started hanging out with Beth Ditto the outlandish and famously large frontwoman of band The Gossip which smartly quietened the gossip rag.
She is very smart indeed. With the new news of the creation of an entertainment empire to rival Disney's spearheaded by Philip Green and Simon Cowell and creative direction provided by Kate hitting the headlines today it seems that the transition from supermodel to supermogul is now complete.
