Drug use turns Moss into a fashion victim
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 22, 2005
LONDON – Barely a teenager and posing topless in a Calvin Klein underwear ad, Kate Moss sashayed her way onto magazine covers 15 years ago amid criticism of her uber-thin “heroin chic” image.
Now, recent pictures of Moss allegedly snorting cocaine in a London studio have turned the 31-year-old fashion icon into a pariah, with fashion companies canceling or not renewing contracts worth millions of dollars.
Moss issued an apology Thursday, taking “full responsibility for my actions.” Her dramatic fall has forced a re-think on fashion’s role models and has raised questions about how an industry notorious for its drug-fueled party life can cultivate Moss’ bad-girl image, then turn on her once that image begins to match reality.
“It’s hypocritical,” said pop culture lecturer Cary Cooper of Lancaster University. “The industry saw the warning signs. Others saw the warning signs. Something should have been done sooner.”
Moss was dropped by Burberry, Chanel and Swedish clothing giant H&M. The British cosmetics company Rimmel London said Thursday it was “reviewing” her $2.3 million contract.
In her statement, Moss said, “I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them.”
Originally from the unglamorous south London suburb of Croydon, Moss was discovered in 1988 by Storm agency founder Sarah Doukas at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Two years later, topless pictures of the 14-year-old were splashed across billboards amid condemnation of Moss’ waifish appearance, blank stare and emaciated figure.
The talk intensified as Moss entered adulthood. She boosted her stock by dating actors such as Johnny Depp and most recently Pete Doherty, the 26-year-old former Libertines frontman who has been in and out of drug rehab.
In 1998, she made headlines when she checked into a London rehab clinic for what was termed “exhaustion.” Two years later, she was hospitalized again. Allegations of her cocaine use never let up.
French fashion consultant Anne de Champigneuil said Moss should have been more careful. “People are lucky to have such great contracts, and they need to respect them. … It’s a shame to give this example. Everyone identifies with a star.”
Icelandic fashion designer Helga Vjornsson thought differently.
“It’s really unfair,” said Vjornsson, who lives off the legendary Parisian shopping street Rue du Faubourg St. Honore. “She may be a product, but she’s a human being, too. The media are responsible for her loss of success or work.”
She recently settled a libel suit with Britain’s Sunday Mirror, which published an article in January alleging that Moss had to be revived from a cocaine-induced coma in June 2001.
That same tabloid ran the pictures of her apparent cocaine use last week.
