KATE MOSS: FROM FASHION TO FETISH ICON

I can’t be alone in noticing that the ubiquitous Kate Moss is in the process of becoming a full-on fetish icon.

The supermodel is all over the fashion press at the moment in editorials and ads (such as this double-page Versace spread in Style), sporting the short hemline/ long-leg/spike-heel/any-colour-as -long-as-it’s-black look that threatens to make this autumn and winter’s high street style more palatable to pervs than fashion has been in ages. But top models are paid to display the season’s hot looks, and if that’s all there were to it, you could argue that, however appealing appearances may be, she’s just doing her job of being a classy clotheshorse.

However, as any Moss watcher will tell you (and we are legion), in her personal style, the model has been way ahead of the look that’s just coming in. She was teaming short hemlines with yards of black opaque-clad leg while the rest of A-list chickery was still intent on exposing max bare flesh from ankle to Brazilian. Moss can do skin as well as anybody, and has never been slow to play on her sexuality. So she must have decided that the competition among celebs to be as naked in public as possible while still technically wearing clothes had reached its nadir, and the only way forward for sexy was to start covering, in interesting ways, that which had become terminally overexposed.

The slinky, full-covered look that she adopted for partying and public appearances got enough attention on its own, and not just because she’s a guaranteed high street trendsetter. It just looked so right on her, not least because it indicated a person confident of the relation between clothes and sexual allure even at a time when she can’t have been that happy, given her continual harassment by the press over drug allegations and her relationship with Pete Doherty.

But then, a couple of weeks ago, came what might be called final confirmation of the model’s personal interest in clothing-based erotica, with the announcement that she was making her screen debut in a series of short, sexy films for Agent Provocateur. The Sunday Times Style magazine, a long- established fan of the British lingerie label, had the scoop on this news and ran it as its September 3 cover story, with a cover pic of Moss (left) in an all-black ensemble shot from an angle that emphasised those perfect, stocking-clad pins. Inside, the mag revealed that Kate had been persuaded by Agent Provocateur to make no less than four short ’n’ sexy films with veteran movie director Mike Figgis, who’d previously shot that nugget of naughtiness Tied Up At The Office for the same label.

Apparently when Agent Provocateur approached her, Kate’s reaction was to wonder why they hadn’t asked her before. She is, it appears, a big fan both of Figgis’ films and AP’s knickers. “It’s the only lingerie I wear,” she told the magazine. In fact she and AP’s founders Serena Rees and Joe Corre have been close for a decade, so this new collaboration is being hailed as a logical progression for all of them.

The films of Moss in (and out of) her favourite lingerie are collectively called The Dreams Of Miss X, and the first dream, Shadows, can be viewed now on the Agent Provocateur website. You have to register as a member, but it’s easy, free and, given what else the site regularly has on offer, well worth it. The remaining three movies will be released through the site on November 1, January 10 and March 1. Dates for the diary, I’d say.

www.agentprovocateur.com
www.sunday-times.co.uk
www.versace.com