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Kate Moss’s style formula can best be distilled as one part ethereal, two parts rock‘n’roll. Our endless fascination with she of skinny jeans and ballet pumps fame is down to the fact her nonchalant, vintage-flecked looks are impossible for mere mortals to replicate. You can’t just throw on an Alexander McQueen skull scarf and look like Moss.
That’s not saying Kate can’t veer away from her bias-cut Galliano dresses, Saint Laurent blazers and archive jewellery—all hallmarks of her brand. When researching the Fashion Awards—take a look at the Vogue editors’ favourite looks and you’ll see why we’re partial to a trip down memory lane—we uncovered some Kate Moss looks that were surprisingly, well, un-Kate. Flashes of turquoise! Florals! Fishnetting! All of which reminded us that the supermodel’s style might have an air of consistency, but she can still keep us on our toes.
There have been some constants binding the catalogue of pieces that encapsulate “the London look” (the tagline from the model’s famous mussed-up Rimmel ads). Namely, legs for days: from her debut Fashion Awards outfit in 1993, which saw Moss and her catwalk colleague Naomi Campbell totter into the venue in vertiginous Vivienne Westwood platforms, to the abstract McQueen mini—one of only a handful of printed pieces she owns.
Said McQueen is indicative of the fact Moss always throws her support behind the homegrown talent she admires—from Lee to John Galliano—and the close friends she has made, such as Marc Jacobs. And a reminder that a red-carpet look is not just relegated to one fabulous night. That 2011 fishnet confection created by Marc, for example, made another appearance on the super three summers later in Ibiza over a turquoise bikini fit for partying with Kim Kardashian.
What’s next for the woman who took home the inaugural Model of the Year Award in 2001 and a Special Recognition Award in 2013? Like the contents of her vast personal archive, her 2024 Fashion Awards look will be one of a kind. As Jacobs, who presented Moss with the latter trophy a decade ago, said: “Kate has always defied convention.” More turquoise? Sure!
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
