Style icon, one of Vogue’s most prolific cover stars, Queen of Cool – Kate Moss has been one of the world’s most ubiquitous supermodels ever since she was famously scouted at New York’s JKF Airport at the age of 14.
She was the woman responsible for the skinny jeans that dominated young women’s wardrobes in the noughties, for the queues outside London’s “Big Topshop” (RIP) thanks to her coveted collaboration with the high street chain, and for single-handedly catapulting bare legs and muddy wellies back into the upper echelons of festival fashion.
Now, as Kate Moss celebrates her 50th birthday on 16 January, what better way to mark the cultural impact of one of the most photographed women in the world than with a look-back at her life in pictures.
Image: Moss became BFFs with fellow British star Naomi Campbell, turning the so-called ‘Big Five’ most bankable supermodels of the era into the ‘Big Six’. Here they are pictured at the London Fashion Awards in 1993
Image: The model’s relationship with Hollywood star Johnny Depp in the 1990s kickstarted the world’s fascination with her love life. Pic: John Barrett/MediaPunch/IPX
Image: When Stella McCartney was a fashion student at Central St Martin’s, having a friend who happened to be one of the most famous models in the world must have helped when it came to presenting her degree collection
Image: Moss became famous for modelling for Calvin Klein, most notably with the now Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg – known to most as ‘Marky Mark’ (of Funky Bunch fame) back then. Here she is surrounded by paps at the opening of a Calvin Klein store
Image: Moss was named female model of the year at the 1996 VH-1 fashion awards. She had become known for her slight frame, dubbed ‘heroin chic’, in comparison with the taller, more curvaceous supers of the time such as Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson
Image: 1997 was peak Cool Britannia thanks to Tony Blair’s landslide general election win. First we had Geri Halliwell in her Brits Union Jack tea-towel dress, then Moss served her own tribute to launch London Fashion Week. Things could only get better…
Image: Sitting with fellow model Jade Jagger, Moss is pictured waiting to walk down the catwalk for Matthew Williamson – the pair reportedly waived their fees in order to keep their outfits…
Image: Another day, another catwalk: A pink-haired Moss joined forces with Campbell once again for Italian designer Donatella Versace (centre), for Gianni Versace’s Spring/Summer 99 collection show in Milan in 1998
Image: On the red carpet with fellow super Claudia Schiffer at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998
Image: Another catwalk, this time for designer Julien MacDonald (centre), walking with stars including Scary Spice Mel B at Camden Roundhouse as part of London Fashion Week in 1999. Spoiler alert: more catwalk pics to come
Image: Another Moss/ Versace/ Campbell reunion in 1999
Image: As well as her outfits and relationships, the world has also been obsessed with Moss’s hair. Here she is pulling off a much shorter, more severe do on a Gucci catwalk in Milan in 2000
Image: Then came the elfin crop, debuted here alongside former South African president Nelson Mandela and behind fellow supers Naomi Campbell, Erin O’Connor and Elle Macpherson in 2001
Image: Moss modelled for pal Sadie Frost for FrostFrench, the label created by Frost and Jemima French, during London Fashion Week in 2002. At this time, she was pregnant with Lila Grace, her daughter with her ex Jefferson Hack, a journalist
Image: You could create a gallery dedicated to Moss’s Glastonbury looks alone. Here she is looking effortlessly cool in what appears to be her first photographed attendance in 2003
Image: The Queen of Fashion matches the actual Queen in royal blue, at a reception for women achievers held at Buckingham Palace in 2004. Also pictured but not matching the Queen are JK Rowling, Heather Mills and Charlotte Church
Image: Immortalised by artist Sam Taylor Wood in Jimmy Choos and Cartier jewellery only. This was one of a series of nude portraits – also including Victoria Beckham – auctioned at Christie’s to raise funds for the Elton John Aids Foundation
Image: Glastonbury has hosted headliners from Elton John to Beyonce – but this from 2005, of Moss in a gold mini-dress and wellies, with then boyfriend Pete Doherty, will always be one of the festival’s most famous images. Pic: Anna Barclay/Shutterstock
Image: Moss has been the face of many brands over the years, including Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle. See also: Calvin Klein, Rimmel – get the London look – and even Diet Coke
Image: In 2005, she was dropped by some brands after photos of her apparently taking cocaine were published in the Daily Mirror. Designer Alexander McQueen came out in support of the model with this T-shirt at one of his catwalk shows a few weeks later
Image: In recent years, several stars who have died have been brought back to life through holograms. Kate Moss, though, is a woman so famous she gets one while she is alive – this was at an Alexander McQueen show in Paris in 2006
Image: Moss pictured at the Unique fashion show by Topshop in London in September 2006. We smell a collab coming on…
Image: Moss has been the subject of many works of art over the years, including by Banksy – who immortalised the model Andy Warhol-style
Image: After her split with Doherty, Moss went on to date Jamie Hince of The Kills. Here they are pictured after the band’s performance at Glastonbury in 2008
Image: More Glastonbury, this time pictured with burglar-inspired onesie-wearer Jaime Winstone in 2011, when The Kills were playing once again
Image: In 2014, Moss accepted a Brit award on behalf of her friend David Bowie, with the prize presented by Noel Gallagher. The singer wanted someone who could pull off his famous Ziggy Stardust playsuit – there could only be one choice
Image: Moss, an icon of British modelling, pictured with the then up-and-coming Cara Delevingne at the presentation of a Burberry Spring/Summer collection in 2014. Delevingne later credited Moss with helping her at the start of her career
Image: Another iconic look – this one is a costume worn by Moss for the 2013 photograph Body Armour, by pop artist Allen Jones, displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2014
Image: The model channelled the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll when she starred in a specially filmed music video for The Wonder of You by Elvis Presley, wearing four of his most famous looks – including the black leather suit from his 1968 Comeback Special
Image: Moss has starred as herself in several TV shows and films, most notably the big screen debut of Absolutely Fabulous in 2016. She reportedly performed her own stunts, falling off a wall into the Thames. Pal Stella McCartney also co-starred as herself
Image: Another Moss artwork, this one a solid 18-carat gold bust by Marc Quinn which was shown as part of the Midas Touch auction, dedicated entirely to gold, at Sotheby’s in London in 2018
Image: Another pic with friend Rita Ora, this one at the Met Gala with designer Marc Jacobs in 2019. The theme? Camp: Notes on Fashion
Image: With open-top buses representing different decades touring London for the Queen’s Jubilee in 2022, it was Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell leading the 1990s party bus that we all wanted to see (apologies to Sir Cliff and Gary Lineker)
Image: Kate Moss was enlisted to model for Kim Kardashian’s Skims in 2021. Sadly, Sky News’ Moss 50th pic budget doesn’t stretch to those images, so here she is keeping up with Kourtney Kardashian and husband Travis Barker at New York Fashion Week in 2022
Image: Moss has been in a relationship with Count Nikolai von Bismarck for several years. Here, they are pictured at a Saint Laurent show in Paris in 2022. Pic: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
Image: Imagine having a mum who takes you to the Met Gala? Pic: DPRF/STAR MAX/IPx/AP
Image: And makes you her Vogue wing-woman? Pic: Tim Walker/British Vogue
Image: Happy birthday, Kate Moss! Thanks for your service. Pic: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of a potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway.
A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for around 200,000 passengers.
“I’d actually warned Heathrow of concerns that we had with regard to the substations and my concern was resilience”, Mr Wicking said.
“So the first occasion was to team Heathrow director on the 15th of the month of March. And then I also spoke to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer two days before regarding this concern.
“And it was following a number of, a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft, of wire and cable around some of the power supply that on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. That obviously made me concerned.”
Mr Wicking also said he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 could have been ready to receive repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was opportunity also to get flights out”.
However, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said keeping the airport open during last month’s power outage would have been “disastrous”.
There was a risk of having “literally tens of thousands of people stranded in the airport, where we have nowhere to put them”, Mr Woldbye said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.