Kate Moss I Remember…

Household name Kate Moss rose to fame in 1990 when her striking face caught the imaginations of fashion photographers everywhere. Countless Vogue covers and hundreds of runways later, the supermodel looks back on growing up in Croydon, being secretly shy and mastering the art of a shoot

…I WENT TO SCHOOL AT RIDDLESDOWN HIGH IN PURLEY. It was an established school that epitomised the harder edge of Surrey in that era. I think it’s much improved now, but I was never the sort of child who could get inspired by education—it just wasn’t for me.

…MY DAD WAS IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY AND WOULD ALWAYS TALK ABOUT HOW BRILLIANT IT WAS TO SEE THE WORLD. Travel was a real ambition of mine when I was a kid. It quickly became my focus over school. Of course, I never dreamed that I’d be able to fulfil that through modelling, so when the opportunity came it was something I jumped at. But as far as growing up in Croydon went, it wasn’t a time I look back on longingly, certainly in so much as the place itself. I was keen to get away.

…MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS WOULD DRIFT AROUND CROYDON ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON looking for inspiration. Surrey Street Market was a popular hangout—a rough and ready part of the town centre bordered by record shops and stalls. There is definitely a part of me that misses the innocence of it all, but not the place.

…MY PARENTS SPLIT UP AND IT BROUGHT ABOUT A KIND OF REBELLION where I didn’t pay too much attention at school. I was definitely mature for my years— though not as mature as I thought I was—and from very early on I was focused on evolving a social life and getting out in the world.

I lived with my mum, Linda, and she encouraged me; while my father, Peter, and his work for Pan American World Airways, opened up for me a world of opportunity that I found hard to resist.