15 by Corrine Day featuring Kate Moss
When I found out that the original prints of Fifteen were going to be exhibited, I got very excited at the prospect of visiting a quiet art gallery (which is not exactly my scene,) and decided to drag Barneys Girl to see them with me. (BG happily came along since the gallery Gimpel Fils, was located near Bonds Street.)Yes, I'm talking about those prints -the ones taken by photographer Corrine Day and published in cult British magazine The Face in 1990, the iconic prints that established Kate Moss, 15 as the awkward, but soon-to-be imperfect supermodel. If you are a Kate Moss fan, then you'll understand why I'm gushing about this set of prints. This was the beginning of Kate Moss......
(This cover was not in the exhibition.)
Taken during a day trip to Camber Sands, Day’s photographs were seized upon as the antidote to the overindulgent 'supermodel in exotic location' fashion spreads which were all too apparent in the glossy magazines of the power-suited 1980s. Day preferred to challenge preconceived notions of beauty and redefined the concerns and range of the fashion photograph.
Moss recalled, “I was just having a laugh. Corinne just wanted to bring out everything that I hated when I was 15. My bow legs, the mole on my breast, the way I laughed”.Gimpel Fils press release
Eventually, one of the pictures caught the eye of the influential art director Fabien Baron, who set up a meeting between Moss and Calvin Klein. Klein loved her, she became the new face of his brand, and many of the stylists and photographers involved in what was by then a grunge movement followed her into the mainstream.The Telegraph Magazine
The best part of the exhibition were the contact sheets, (for those who don't know, a contact sheet is basically a print of the original negatives.) These contact sheets showed images Day considered and ones she chose. Day actually discarded the images where Kate put on the typical 'model' look and chose the ones where she looked natural and like a gawky, happy teenager. This was no ordinary fashion shoot. The clothes were not the focus, rather it was Day's aim was to capture the model's personality into film.I LOVED these prints. It's hard to decide which image I liked the most. The one of Kate's face (picture on top) was HUGE, but still amazingly focused. Sigh, the exhibition was sooo beautiful and the gallery had such a calm vibe I didn't want to leave!
posted by Harrods Girl at 11:20 PM
15 Comments:
It's a lovely laidback shoot.
but has anyone noticed how different her nose looks??
The first image (the close-up of her face) is def my favourite, but the whole shooting is so fresh and still modern!
I don't like the last picture very much, she has a strange posture on it, but the rest of the shooting is so great ! I wish I could visit this exhibition too !
Wow, I'm 15! lol Love the ones where shes laughing
Kate Moss has really been a lasting beauty. Not many models have been around so long or so successfully - these really show her beginnings; they're great.
I love how they have a 15 year old smoking...
So cool that you got to go see that! I would have loved to.
good photos an good set but not great.
kate is beautiful but it's weird how designers like klein find a face and its of a 15/16 year old.
a little weird
Aw man, i wish i could've seen the exhibition. What city did you say you lived in again? Or did you see the exhibition in London?
So was this the photoshoot that launched her career?? Email me back on this plz!
I love how cute and happy she looks here. As a one-time Londoner, I can't not love Kate.
You were quite right when you said that she is an imperfect model. That´s the essence of Kate Moss´ success! Every other girl just looks like the other. It´s difficult to make out a difference. Whatever the yellow press is going to write about her nothing can chance my opinion, that she´s one of the most important icons of this and the last century.
I adore Kate Moss... those pictures aren't beutiful but their light and refreshing away from those heavy made up fashion shoots now , I absoulutely love thise photoshoot. moss can be sxc and daring or pure and fragile , which is what makes her such a great icon
Yes, she's fifteen and smoking, she did some topless shots as well; but the point is this doesn't symbolize the manipulation of women or the propaganda of fashion modelling it's the opposite. It's two great friends, uncomissioned, (thus having little to lose) messing about and enabling them to capture the models personality rather than the photographers idealism of what the model is like. She didn't tell Kate when to look happy, or when to look sad she just captured her exactly as she was. And in that way it's more of an embrace of her childishness rather than a perversion.
thank god you posted these
i've been looking for them forever.
check out mine and Petra Collins exhibit website
of natural females in the city
WWW.FATALE-FEMMES.COM
xxxx
I remember actually flicking through this isue of the Face in 1990 when it was on the newsstand! The cover struck me immediately, but I remember thinking that the girl on the cover mustn't have been a 'model' ( remember, this was the age of Christy, Cindy, Linda and Naomi, when they were everywhere!) But what also struck me was that it looked exactly how some of my friends wore their clothes in everyday life- a bit of cheapo thrift, something new here and there etc- rather than what was happening in 'fashion' at that time. which was so polished and perfect. I wish I had bought that copy now....two years later I became a huge Kate Moss fan but I forgot that she was on that cover until I saw it again online years later.
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