Moss firms’ cash piles show fashion icon’s enduring appeal
THERE are models, there are supermodels — and then there is Kate Moss. Turning 40 has only boosted her earning power, according to accounts filed last week by her two companies.
They show she has defied a whiff of scandal and predictions of decline, reflecting a revolution in how the fashion industry is responding to women consumers.
Accounts for her main company, Tilly Church, show that last year it had more than €11.25m in the bank and was owed a further €6.25m.
A second company, Skate, was sitting on more than £5m in the bank last year — and was owed a further €1.25m.
In total it means the two companies had €25m in cash, much of it in the bank and some owed to them, compared with about €21.2m in 2012 — the year she appeared with several other supermodels celebrating British fashion at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics.
The event, watched by billions around the globe, helped to confirm that Moss, who hit the 40-year mark in January, was one of the most recognisable people on the planet and cemented her brand.
In the same year, Forbes placed her second on its top-earning models list, with an estimated €6.8m. Once money owed to creditors is factored in, last year Moss’s two companies had net assets of €20.8m. And, while their accounts make it difficult to separate how much of her wealth was earned and how much was accrued from investments and interest, they suggest that 2013 might turn out to be her most lucrative year to date.
“The fact that she’s doing so well is testament to her enduring agelessness and ability to be a really successful canvas—butalsosheisperfectly placed to reflect the growing market of 40-plus women who have money to spend in fashion and beauty,” said fashion commentator Caryn Franklin.
“At last companies are waking up to this. There used to be a definite cut-off point in modelling — but now that’s all changing, and I hope the careers of other 40-plus models will start to take off.
“Ultimately, it’s female consumers who will lead the trend by responding to more realistic role models in terms of age and where they choose to buy their produce.”
Ger Tierney, executive fashion editor of i-D magazine, said Moss’s longevity was also partly down to a reaction against “the increasingly short lifespan of models’ careers that has long been the depressing norm.
“Women want to connect with a character, they want a strong woman and no longer buy into the next long-limbed schoolgirl to turn up brighteyed and bushy-tailed at fashion week,” said Tierney.
“It’s easy to connect with Kate because we’ve grown up watching her career, her personal life, her high and her lows. She has become humanised over the years and is more marketable than ever.”
Moss has contracts with a range of brands including Matchless, Rimmel and Topshop, for whom she is a designer.
There have been questions about whether her second collection for the high-street chain, launched earlier this year, has been a total success.
Topshop entrepreneur Sir Philip Green dismissed suggestions that some items in her latest collection had not sold well after they ended up in the sales.
“The range was very, very successful and we waited until the end of the season to clear whatever was left. There’s nothing untoward — whether it’s got Kate Moss in it, or any other brand, what we’ve got left at the end of the season around the globe, we sell.
“Nothing sells 100pc — whatever it is. It doesn’t exist in any business.”
Moss’s sustained earning power is all the more remarkable given that some commentators wrote her off almost a decade ago. In 2005, following her short-lived relationship with singer Pete Doherty, she found herself immersed in allegations of drug-taking. Although she was never charged, a number of major brands dropped her.
“People said that would end her career,” said Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University and author of Celebrity Culture. “But in fact the opposite happened. She came back with renewed vigour. Scandal can be a valuable resource.”
Approaching 40 does not appear to have dimmed Moss’s appetite for exposure.
Last December she appeared in the 60th-anniversary issue of Playboy magazine. In the same month, she was honoured at the British fashion awards acknowledging her contribution to the industry during a career spanning a quarter of a century.