The Kate Moss Witch Hunt

Kate Moss posing for Calvin Klein in 1992

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” – Kate Moss (ah, Capricorn!).

“I don’t usually defend drug users, but the media’s coverage of Kate Moss’s lapse of judgement seems vindictive and unchristian. And the claim that she should e prosecuted and that the police’s failure to do so is further evidence of liberal hypocrisy, just isn’t true. Someone can be prosecuted only for the possession of drugs, not for their use. This was determined in a test case in the Seventies to mean physical possession: the presiding judge said a person whose stomach contains cocaine no more possesses it than a man who has eaten steak still possesses a steak.” – Jonathan Lappage, Oxon (reader’s letter in The Daily Mail, 26 September 2005, p.48).

 

Why do the papers turn on those they love?

Reader’s letter from Charlotte Smith, Metro, 15 June 2006, p.18.

As an American who has been living in this country for the past ten years, I’ve really got to ask just what is the issue with the British press? It seems they yearn for building people up only to hope they can knock them down again.

Lately, every time you open a paper, all you can see are digs and personal attacks on celebrities whom the media loves only a few issues before. For example, let’s look at Heather Mills McCartney. Granted, she was an ex-model who married a rock star. Big deal. However, the press wrote about her charity work and her mothering and her ability to overcome disability with such a sense of admiration, you’d have actually thought they liked the woman.

The '90s saw the rise of Kate Moss as a Calvin Klein model

Now they’re all praying the woman’s life comes crashing down around her. Not only are they criticising what choices she may have made in the past during her modelling years (Metro, Mon) but they also seem to be making fun of her disability. It’s not only cruel, it’s just poor journalism.

My plea is this: lay off a bit. Let people’s lives be their own. Yeah, we may want a bit of gossip for time to time but when the papers seem to enjoy the downfall of their once-beloved, they border on heartless.

Another reader, J Longstaff from Essex, disagrees: “What individuals do in their private lives cannot be divorces from what they are in public life and the influence they have on others, despite efforts of some to pretend otherwise. There is a need for us to be given renewed grounds to trust those in positions of leadership and for honesty, integrity and competence.” (Metro, 11 June 2006).

“On 16 June 2006, British police dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Ultimately, Moss was cleared of all charges and resumed her modelling career.” (Wikipedia).

 Obsession 1992

Going back a little further...to 2005...

The witch hunt to wreck Kate Moss’s career was savage and blown out of proportion in the media. For a whole week, the mainstream media in its entirety was going on about it. Basically because it was good press to have her in the papers. There is a certain responsibility that goes with fame, power and wealth – but not for a rock chick model! An A-List celebrity is not necessarily a role model by default. Sure, the public was familiar with the queen of the skinny jean. Everyone is different, however, and the media did not succeed in tarnishing Kate Moss’s name. She continued to sell her magic. Interfering people who were projecting a duty onto her, like imposing a tax, were poking their noses into other people’s business. It all depends how you set yourself up. If you put yourself forward as someone who says, “I do not take drugs” and that’s the public persona you project to make your money, then snorting cocaine may come as something as a shock to the public because you were purporting to be something they are not. Moss had a junkie boyfriend so of course she took drugs. It would have been naive if anyone found it shocking when she was caught on camera. Neither of these two ‘celebrities’ needed or approval. They also had a right to privacy. In the West, once your become a celebrity, you’re a target. No doubt someone was out to make a quick buck on the sly by grassing up her with photographic evidence. People ought to take responsibility for themselves. Ozzy Osborne made a career out of taking drugs and misbehaving. Great singer and songwriter but he was always a wild, eccentric character!

“Moss featured in the fashion look heroin chic in 1996 (which prompted speculation over her weight) with a campaign for Calvin Klein. Bill Clinton spoke out against the trend. Moss said, ‘It was just the time. It was a swing from more buxom girls like Cindy Crawford and people were shocked to see what they called a 'waif.’ What can you say? How many times can you say 'I'm not anorexic'?"

The Kate Moss drama shows how messed up we are. Do we even have any role models these days? We have rejected all the traditional ones, the Christians, the doctors, the lawyers, and so forth. The only modern people we see are ordinary people who have become famous but they are not role models, or shouldn’t be classed as such.

The world of entertainment and popular culture no longer shows people with a positive message to share. More people can relate to them because they are like ordinary members of the public. And does the general public have a developed sense of responsibility? Isn’t this preferable to returning to the stuck up public school face of the British media that people endures during 60s and earlier? Russell Brands are few and far between. Commercial interests take precedence and people with wisdom to offer usually rock the boat because the Establishment is not on our side. It is out to exploit and is inform us, to keep us ignorant and dumbed down and destroy us culturally through banal television. 

Kate Moss for Vanity Fair, December 2012

The public appeared to agree that David Cameron’s previous drug-taking is irrelevant. It had nothing to do with the leadership contest in 2005. So who was stirring things up? The mainstream media, naturally. Journalists who were employed by the Establishment and believed this was ‘news’ because there are a lot of boring, gossipy, judgemental conformists up and down the country who would read it and agree that it was ’bad’ then use it to project their negativity and insecurities onto others. People who bring out the worst in our culture and aid its demise. If we had no government, no leadership even, and the people took over, we would be overwhelmed by hysteria as negative emotions let rip, just wildly flying out of Pandora’s Box, thereby wreaking havoc. As Rory Bremner’s impersonation of Tony Blair said at the time: “Come on, without me you really do have a problem.” (Bremner, Bird and Fortune, Channel 4, 16 October 2005).

And so...back in September 2005, the press was suggesting that the supermodel’s career had been in free fall since a newspaper published pictures of her snorting lines of coke in London recording studio with her singer-songwriter boyfriend. Clearly they were predicting that losing her contract with Swedish retailer H&M was a sign of things to come. Her contract with Chanel expired that October “although,” according to Wikipedia, “its decision had nothing to do with the drug scandal.” They even fabricated the termination of her contract with Burberry as if it was an attempt to make their prediction come true. When the scandal ‘broke’ on 15 September 2005, Kate Moss felt obliged to apologise for letting people down. She said that she took full responsibility for her actions and was taking steps to address her ‘personal issues.’

“Listen, I’m a comic, not a missionary.” – Max Miller.

“Listen, I’m a model, not a nun.” – Kate Moss (no she didn’t really say this).

For Playboy

Kate makes her comeback

By Alexa Baracaia

Evening Standard, 1 November 2005, p.11.

She is just out of rehab after a drug scandal which has seen her stripped of some of her most lucrative fashion contracts – but Kate Moss is already gracing magazine covers again.

Vanity Fair has taken the plunge and splashed “Cocaine Kate” across its front cover.

The 31-year-old supermodel is shown in a charcoal Chloe camisole, above a headline questioning: “Kate Moss – can she come back?” And the answer to that seems to be: she can and she probably already has.

Merely by putting the supermodel on its front page, the American magazine can expect to see a boost in sales on both sides of the Atlantic. It dedicates 11 full pages to the model, including lavish fashion shots taken several months ago but never used.

The cover comes barely seven weeks after Moss was caught on camera snorting “line after line” of cocaine at a recording session with boyfriend Pete Doherty. The revelations saw her ditched from contracts with fashion houses including Burberry and Chanel, and even best friend Stella McCartney’s own clothing line for H&M. Days after that, further stories emerged of sex parties and wife-swapping among her circle of friends. [Metro, 26 September 2005, p.9: “allegations of drug-fuelled lesbian sex and wild parties at her Gloucestershire mansion”].

After issuing an apology for her drug-taking, the model went into rehab in the Meadows clinic in Arizona – which she left after a month-long stay last week.

Kate Moss graces the cover of Vanity Fair magazine's September issue

A spokeswoman for Vanity Fair today insisted they had picked Moss merely because she is “topical.” She is interesting and in the news,” came the statement from the magazine.

In the meantime, Moss is reported to be letting her St John’s Wood home and moving to her Gloucestershire farmhouse with three-year-old daughter Lila Grace. She has hired two minders to keep her away from drug dealers and Doherty’s circle of friends. Media commentators insist Moss – perhaps because of rather than despite the revelations – still guarantees mass sales. “The American magazine W put Kate on its front cover for November and they didn’t get any flak for it. People are fascinated by Kate and once one publication has taken the plunge, it’s not so hard for another to follow,” said an insider.

Julie L Belcove, Deputy Editor of W, said: “It has always been Moss’s complexity that has made her so compelling to look at. But she has become an icon.”

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Fabien Baron, who, as Creative Director for Harpers Bazaar in 1992, first introduced Moss to Calvin Klein, insists:” They will bring her back. And the fashion business will support her.”

“People like working with Kate Moss and Helena Christensen because they bring an acting quality to their work. They are easier to work with.” – Janet Ellis (The Wright Stuff, Channel 5, 15 September 2006).

Kate Moss by Kate Garner

How Cocaine Kate trebled her earnings

£30m payday as firms flock back to scandal-hit model

By Bella Blissett, London Lite, 14 September 2006, p.9.

There’s no doubt about it – Kate Moss has the Midas touch. Every handbag, dress, fragrance or cosmetic range she puts her face to turns to gold.

Almost a year after ‘Cocaine Kate’ was sacked by fashion store H&M over claims that she snorted the drug at a recording studio, she is the face of a record14 ad campaigns [Louis Vuitton, David Yurman, Burberry, Bulgari, Christian Dior, Belstaff, Agent Provocateur, Stella McCartney, Rimmel, Versace, Longchamp, Calvin Klein, Nikon and Virgin Mobile].

Her annual income is considered to be more than £30 million – almost three times her pre-scandal earnings. It appears advertisers cannot get enough of Kate Moss – and the public is prepared to forgive and forget.

Francesca Newland of fashion trade magazine Campaign said:”It is unusual for one person to dominate so many advertising campaigns simultaneously. Moss is 32 years old in a slavishly ageist industry yet she adds an edgy cool factor to high profile brands. I can’t think of anyone else who has been the face of so many at once.”

When photographs appeared to show her taking cocaine, a number of advertisers and stores dropped her. But many in the fashion industry were quick to jump to her defence. A slogan on the t-shirt of Alexander McQueen on his Paris catwalk (‘We love you Kate’) last March seemingly lacked only one word: ‘unconditionally.’

Kate Moss by Tim Walker for Love Fall/Winter 2012-2013

Eventually, the deals returned – including some from the companies who were quick to ditch her amid the public furore caused by the photos. This week Marina Marzotto at Propaganda GEM told the International Herald Tribune: “She’s come out of the other end of the celebrity meat grinder stronger than ever, just by being herself.”

New York retail analyst Jim Hurley claimed: “She’s like the goose that laid the golden egg. Everyone wants her. The once-gawky teenager, spotted in JFK airport in New York by Storm model agency founder Sarah Doukas, can help to sell anything from Bulgari gems to Virgin Mobile phones. Sales of Coty’s Rimmel have risen 20 per cent each year since it signed her in September 2001.

Last week, she was pictured in London clutching a Princes Trust and Superdrug charity bag, priced £2.99 – and sales have shot up tenfold.

“It’s become an annual glam-fest and the latest Pirelli calendar doesn’t disappoint...The Italian tyre firm’s world famous calendar will be unveiled in Paris today. Despite her drug-taking revelations, Kate Moss features in four of the pictures. Pirelli spokeswoman Julie Naylor said: ‘There was no chance that we would have dropped Kate from the calendar. We decided to stick with her because she has always been a wonderful ambassador for us.’” (Metro, 18 November 2005, p.7).

 

The Burberry Saga

“I love that wonderful thing we’ve got at Burberry of two very opposite worlds – the elegant, aristocratic, sophisticated and classic England, and the rebellious, gritty, down-to-earth real England. For me, that’s what Burberry is really about. I always try to fuse those worlds. And I love it when those two worlds collide, and I think that’s what makes us unique as a nation. That’s why it’s such a creative country.” – Christopher Bailey (Evening Standard, 10 November 2005, p.25).

The press lied about Burberry dropping Kate Moss. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s 34-year-old director, said she was probably the best model ever in the world: she is very professional and works very hard, he said. The reference in the Evening Standard article reproduced above (1 November 2005) appears to be slander since Kate lost only the H&M contract as a result of the cocaine pictures. Even Wikipedia cites only this assertion in the Evening Standard! On 21 September 2005, the Daily Mirror claimed that Burberry a campaign scheduled for autumn “had been cancelled by mutual consent in the wake of drug allegations."

Kate Moss and Liberty Ross for Burberry

A short article from 22 September 2005 that I found on the web starts off saying that Kate Moss's modelling career was in freefall as of that morning as she had lost “three more contracts over cocaine allegations.” However, the article then goes on to clear that fallacy up, having caused enough damage with the headline, they hoped:

“Chanel said it would not be renewing Moss's £750,000-a-year contract as the face of Coco Mademoiselle perfume and revealed that the contract would only run until the end of October. The cosmetics firm denied that the axe had anything to do with the drug allegations, but gave no other details. Burberry said it had never had a contract with the model, simply that Moss had worked on various projects, with one due for the autumn that was "mutually" decided by Moss and the fashion house would not go ahead. Denim firm Gloria Vanderbilt added to the model's woes in a statement, saying that it had not known of Moss's "issues" before the campaign and would have second thoughts about using her again. Although under increasing pressure to drop the star from their ad campaigns, Rimmel London, Christian Dior, H Stern and Fred Paris have so far all pledged to stand by Moss.” www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/518253/kate-moss-loses-three-contracts-cocaine-allegations#).

“Kate Moss goes for tea and sympathy in one of her first appearances since cocaine allegations rocked her career. The supermodel stars in a new TV advert for Virgin Mobile, in which she takes on a rare speaking role...In the commercial, Moss is dressed casually and making tea. She receives a call from a man who says he has found a perfect contract for her – a monthly deal from Virgin. Sir Richard Branson said he was ‘thrilled’ the ‘best model in the world’ had agreed to do the advert. ‘I have known Kate for 18 years and am a huge fan of hers,’ he added.” (Metro, 20 December 2005, p.7).

Kate Moss interviewed by Nick Knight about being shot by Mario Sorrenti for Calvin Klein

If models influence our young...

An article by Laura Clark, Fashion Editor for the Evening Standard, 26 September 2005, p.22.

(I did not cut out the rest of the title or article, unfortunately)

In my younger years, when my job involved dealing with the music industry, cocaine was everywhere. Which is why I am angry at the example being made out of the fashion industry. Yes, some models take cocaine. But so do some doctors, a lot of dentists and a fair few journalists, too.

The witch hunt surrounding Kate Moss is unfair, but it is also unsurprising. She is a model, and models are easy targets. While most celebrities never tire of airing their views, Moss was a silent beauty who never complained, never explained. She has never, unlike Noel and Liam Gallagher, boasted about her cocaine consumption. She has never, unlike her boyfriend Pete Doherty, used drugs to cynically increase her profile and her earnings.

Kate Moss and Pete Doherty

It beggars belief that, while Kate’s career is in ruins amid glee from all the tabloids, those same tabloids, several pages later, are reviewing a Babyshambles gig and calling Doherty a “tortured, charismatic genius.” Why is it acceptable for musicians to drone on about their drug use? In what way is Pete Doherty not a role model for “impressionable young people” too?

The tabloids talk about him as if he were the next Messiah, while his girlfriend is the Devil incarnate. I remember when Paul Gascoine was outed not only as a drug addict and an alcoholic, but as a man who beat up his wife. Was his career destroyed? No – he was picked to play for England...

Then, in September 2006, journalists were picking on Kate again for smoking a cigarette on stage when she and Pete Doherty sang a duet that he had written for her titled ‘La Belle Et La Bete’ at the Ambassador’s Theatre in Dublin during a Babyshambles show. Flouting Ireland’s smoking ban! Golly gosh! Doherty had also been smoking during an earlier gig. And, by October of the same year, Jane Shepherdson resigned from Topshop and its owner, Philip Green, employed Kate Moss to design a collection. She went on to design clothes for others and has continued modelling. Then, in April 2014, aged 40, she ‘reprised’ her role of designer for Topshop having taken a four-year hiatus from designing clothes.

For Agent Provocateur (and Knickers Anonymous)

“In July 2007, Moss and Doherty split. Moss married Jamie Hince, guitarist of The Kills, on 1 July 2011.” (Wikipedia). The couple went their separate ways, however, in 2015.

Kate with Jamie Hince

“They say a rolling stone gathers no moss, so are we to gather equally that a stoned Moss cannot stop rolling?” – Jools Zauscinski, Manchester (reader’s comment in Metro, 26 September 2005, p.18).

It just makes me wonder if the witch hunt that targeted Kate Moss in 2005 gave the Elite an idea: why not start an Inquisition that targets all thin models – just for being thin? Great idea!

In the wake of the Kate Moss betrayal, the Evening Standard took it upon itself to do some digging around of its own. The paper reported on 29 September 2005 that traces of cocaine had been found in toilets at six parties at two five-star hotels in Brighton that were “attended by members of the Government, journalists and lobbyists at the heart of the political establishment.” These revelations followed evidence that “cocaine use was rife at London fashion week.” (p.7). Reporter Patrick Sawyer added: “One partygoer said: ‘Cocaine is the drug of choice for many in politics, PR and media and among the metropolitan elite. It’s a very Islington and Notting Hill thing. During Labour conference Brighton becomes Islington and W11-on-sea and people take their pleasures with them. For some that includes cocaine. Perhaps they ought to legalise it then! Or is it, ‘One rule for us and another for the masses?’

In another article, a week later, the same writer cited an ’onlooker’ as saying, “’Politics is a high-octane occupation. Cocaine gives you a sense of euphoria.” He also explained that, according to Drugscope spokeswoman Petra Maxwell, “Cocaine is now the second most popular drug in the UK after cannabis. It is cheaper than it has ever been and is no longer just the preserve of rich rock stars and models. It is within reach of much wider groups of people.” Maxwell suggested that these findings “should encourage politicians and the media to adopt a more understanding attitude towards drug use rather than knee-jerk condemnation.” (Evening Standard, 6 October 2005).