Kate Moss is just 38 years old, but her career already spans four calendar decades. That's impressive in a business where models face involuntary retirement in their early 20s.
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It's even more impressive once you consider how quickly the fashion business redefines beauty. Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, for instance, were considered the faces of the 1980s and 1990s. Today, they'd struggle to get work -- their square-jawed American features just look old fashioned in a time when Eastern European and Asian women are the trend.
Kate Moss, however, carries on regardless. She's still in high demand as a face for brands. The list of companies she has endorsed -- David Yurman, Burberry, Dior, Chanel, Topshop, Calvin Klein and dozens of others -- is so long that brands actually risk de-differentiating themselves against their competitors when they use her.
One theory why Moss endures is to do with her widely spaced eyes and her flat, open face. She is a blank, beautiful slate: Her expression could indicate anything: arousal or boredom, fear or anticipation, contentment or sadness. You decide.
A new book of iconic photos of Moss is being published Nov. 6. It covers her life as model from 1988 -- when she was "discovered" by agency Storm Model Management at JFK airport in New York, age just 14 -- to today. Moss also appears on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair (and is nude on the inside).
Most of the images of Moss were taken for ads, and these are the images that formed the key turning points in her career.
1990: Kate Moss signed up as a model in 1988, but got her first big break in 1990 when she was used on the cover of The Face, an influential U.K. style magazine.
1993: Moss's appearance as the model for Calvin Klein Jeans created the 'waif' look. (We've slightly censored this image.)
1993: The waif look was controversial. It inspired a debate about 'heroin chic,' and whether Moss's size-zero body was a healthy role model for girls. It's hard to believe now, but at the time Moss was considered an 'alternative' model with a radically non-glamorous look, compared with big-haired all-American models like Cindy Crawford.
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