It was the start of an incredible career. So it's no surprise that Kate Moss' first ever modelling pictures are expected to fetch up to £1,200 each when they are auctioned off at Bloomsbury's in London's Mayfair on November 23. At just 14 years old, Kate already had that smouldering gaze and striking bone structure that has made her one of – if not the – biggest supermodels in the world.
The three shots were taken in 1988, just a few months after she was talent spotted at an airport, by David Ross. She is shown in a variety of different poses, seen in one laughing whilst the others are more broody. The photographer opened up about this meeting with Kate, who was wearing a Fred Perry jumper: 'She was a cool character. She seemed like a tough or resilient typical teenager, comfortably fronting me up, perhaps covering up her nerves,' he said. 'I suppose what was refreshing was that she was honest. She wasn't trying to prove anything or act above her station. 'She didn't try to adopt a model attitude of self-absorption and superiority, which at the time was becoming public via media sensation. She was untarnished. A blank canvas, as other writers have put it.'
Kate was discovered by a talent scout when she was waiting to board a flight back to London from New York in 1988. Since, she has enjoyed enormous success, fronting campaigns with major international brands including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and Chanel. The 39-year-old has also appeared in fashion spreads in the world's top fashion magazines and has worked with some of the biggest photographers in the fashion industry, including Mario Testino, who she counts as a friend. Earlier this year, she came in 2nd on the Forbes top-earning models list, estimated to have earned $9.2 million in one year.
But last week, in her most revealing interview to date, supermodel Kate opens up about the painful struggles of her stellar career. Despite the glitz and glamour of her worldwide fame, she speaks candidly in an interview with Vanity Fair about her teenage nervous breakdown and heartbreak over ex-boyfriend Johhny Depp.
Scouted at just 14, she made her modelling debut with a Corinne Day shoot for iconic magazine The Face, but found it difficult to adapt to the modelling arena. Recalling a shoot at the beginning of her career when she was asked to take her clothes off, she was told "if you don't do it, then we're not going to book you again." She explains, "I'd lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it." But by 1992 she was riding on the crest of a wave when she appeared with Mark Wahlberg in a Calvin Klein campaign shot by Herb Ritts, but by then the pressure of modelling proved too much. "I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts," said Kate. "I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die. "She found support in the shape of Johnny Depp, boyfriend of three years, who helped her through the highs and lows of her career, telling her: "Never complain, never explain".
"There's nobody that's ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said, 'What do I do?' - he'd tell me. And that's what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust." She was left heartbroken when the couple split in 1997 and endured "years and years of crying". In the brutally honest interview, she goes on to describe the stark reality of the modelling world. "Nobody takes care of you mentally. There's a massive pressure to do what you have to do. "Once the poster girl for 'heroin chic' in the 1990s, the 38-year-old's undeniable reputation for parties and paparazzi still lives on. But Kate has since taken to a quieter lifestyle, living with husband Jamie Hince and 12-year-old daughter Lila Grace in Highgate, London.