Kate Moss: Vintage Style Tips
The supermodel opens her little black book, as told to Alison S. Cohn
Ibuy vintage everywhere,” says Kate Moss. “I always keep my eyes open when I’m travelling.” It’s no sur pr ise, then, that on a tr ip to South America, the 45-year-old super model found a kindred spir it in Jorge Yarur Bascuñán, director of the world-class Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile. This month, Rizzoli is publishing Museo de la Moda: Musings on Fashion & Style, an irreverent scrapbook of sorts that Moss edited and that places the fashion museum’s encyclopaedic holdings—where John Lennon’s Sgt. Pepper’s jacket and ’ 30s tea dresses rub up against the finest couture—in conversation with her wardrobe. Here, she shares her shopping tips and styling tr icks for six key vintage styles from the museum’s collection with BAZAAR.
SWINGING LONDON
It’s lovely to know I have a museum piece in the Thea Porter dress I own, but I just enjoy wearing it. I get excited whenever I find British designers from the ’60s and ’70s in a vintage shop, and I usually buy them. My daughter, Lila, just wore an Ossie Clark dress I got at auction when she was 10 and had been saving for her. It once belonged to Twiggy.
FLUID
I chose this dress as I love Bob Mackie and I think what he did with Cher was amazing. I have always gravitated toward bias-cut dresses because they are easy and comfortable, but also really flattering and glamorous. I wore a 1930s silk dress to Princess Eugenie’s wedding reception. When I was a teenager, I wore bias-cut dresses with trainers, but now I wear them with heels.
DRAPE
The detailing in the way goddess dresses like the Jean Dessès gown in the museum’s collection are made is incredible. They are good to wear, since draping gives you a great body shape. This champagne jumpsuit, which I wore for Moët & Chandon’s 150th anniversary, was perfect for that event. I kept the accessories really simple as it didn’t need over-styling.
EXOTIC
Yves Saint Laurent designs from the ’60s epitomise bohemian-chic and are from an era I would have loved to live in. When I shop for peasant dresses, I really don’t look at labels; I’m usually drawn by the colours. I like to wear them with heeled boots.
ROCK
It’s incredible to touch pieces worn by John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, as they’re two of my favourite people who ever lived. A studded moto like my ’70s Roncelli jacket is the type of thing I like to wear to festivals or just every day to rock up a look and give it a bit of an edge. “It’s lovely to know I have a museum piece in the Thea Porter dress I own, but I just enjoy wearing it.”
FLORAL
The museum has a lot of ’30s tea dresses, and Jorge actually gave me one from his collection. They’re very feminine—perfect for a garden party. I usually accessorise with a sandal, a small handbag, and delicate jewellery, maybe a dangly earring. I like the dreaminess of these dresses; the soft, flowing fabric. I always imagine someone wearing this dress as they waft around a Parisian garden or a stately home.