The misery that made Kate Moss

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/03/kate-moss-misery-model

Version 0 of 1.

Kate Moss rarely gives interviews. Few models do. Only a tiny minority become "personalities" rather than mere bodies, remarkable either because they are wearing clothes – or because they aren't. In this respect, fashion modelling objectifies people as much as glamour modelling does. So there's something counter-intuitively heroic in Moss's refusal to do what's required of her, and "open up".

But Moss has broken her rule and given a Vanity Fair interview to her friend James Fox. It was worth the wait. In it she describes how awful it made her feel, aged 16, to be coerced into going topless for Corrine Day, the hip photographer who made her famous.

Moss no longer cares about who sees her breasts. She's a fully adult woman who is comfortable with her body. But at an age when many young girls are so self-conscious that they hate communal changing rooms in clothes shops, Moss seemed preternaturally confident. It's sad – for her personally – that this wasn't true. She says it adversely affected her mental health for years. No one can deny it led to a stellar career for her. But the hunger for the display of perfect, young, female flesh makes many girls feel pressured, even just looking at such pictures. Moss is right to reveal the misery that lay behind those photos.