Despite being the wrong height, Kate did get a catwalk gig in Paris when she was 15. This was for John Galliano, who cast her as “Lolita”. Kate bunked off school and flew to Paris, staying with one of Galliano’s seamstresses. The evening before the show she was so scared she couldn’t eat. She recalled, “I had to come down the catwalk by myself. It looked huge, like an airport runway — I was so nervous.” She also described watching the video of the show later that evening: “Someone had run off with the champagne, so me and this other person drank a bottle of Scotch between us. I passed out at the table and went missing for two days. I was supposed to be back at school but no one knew where I was. I was supposed to be back at school on Monday morning and I was still in Paris on Wednesday!”
Sixteen years later, in 2005, when Kate was presented by David Bowie with a special award for Style at the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Galliano was unable to attend on account of a “shower accident.” But he sent Kate a Humbert Humbert note, “You will always be my Lolita.”
— excerpt from the book Kate Moss: Addicted to Love. Kate Moss @ John Galliano S/S 1992.
