By Holly O'Neill
06th Oct 2016
06th Oct 2016
Kate Moss
One of the world’s most recognisable faces, with more international Vogue covers than anyone else in the world, and the last of the 90s original supers who still has an active modelling career, is now becoming a talent powerhouse.?Supermodel turned businesswoman Kate Moss has given her first business interview on her own talent management agency which launched this month.
Speaking with Business Of Fashion, she’said that managing careers is a dream. “It’s so weird,? she laughs, at the prospect of spotting and backing new faces. ?You know that film ?Gia?? Faye Dunaway plays the agent. I could so do that! But I want to focus more on managing people’s careers than just [running] a modelling agency. I don’t really want pretty people, I want people that want to sing and dance and act – I want to create stars,? she told BoF’s Imran Amed.
The Kate Moss Agency is more than just managing careers; there’s a string of new collaborations and projects to come later this year. It’s also more than just money to Kate – she wants to create something that excites her. “I’d rather do something I was really proud of as a product rather than the ka-ching,? says Moss. ?As a modelling agency, they book models to do a job. You’re not as associated with the brand, you’re just the face of. But to do a collaboration and put your name on a product is a big thing for me. It’s something I need to believe in.?
Not that she needs the money. The Sunday Times has estimated her to be one of the richest women in Britain with a net worth of over?$75 million.
To begin, the Kate Moss Agency will handle and represent a small group as models. Her dream team includes her longtime booking agent Lucy Baxter and she has hired?Camilla Johnson-Hill as her brand and business manager. “It was so perfect to get somebody that understood me and what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go with it,? Moss says of Johnson-Hill. ?She’s a doer. I love doers.?
Camilla Johnson-Hill has made it clear however, that the Kate Moss Agency is all Kate Moss. ?Kate makes all her own decisions. She’s the CEO. I bring things to the table and add some things and help shape things, but every project is hers,? explains Johnson-Hill. ?One thing that I’ve learned about Kate since I’ve been working with her is that she will not do anything that doesn’t seem authentic to her. Every project is led by her, creatively and business-wise.?
Kate also spoke?to BoF about wanting to bring her own nurturing and maternal side to her agency, and she has publicly spoken about the loneliness, discomfort and uncertainty she felt on shoots as an up and coming model. When she started modelling, she says she depended on Naomi Campbell. “Naomi took complete care of me. She’d say, ?Calm down.? I think because you’re alone a lot of the time, you really need guidance. Even now you’re expected to do anything to get the picture, and that’s a work ethic, but you also need a support system.? She said she recognised similar signs of struggles in Cara Delevingne and wants to be able to take care of her talent.??There are all these young kids and when Cara [Delevingne] came to me she wasn’t well and I was like, ?Babe, I am going to take you to a doctor,? you know, because I’ve been there. I’ve got a maternal side and I’d like to take care of them and nurture them so they grow to their full capacity in anything they’d like to do, instead of being used up and tossed out, because I think that can happen a lot with things working so quickly.?
The Kate Moss Agency website is up and running and includes a talent application form that asks for your Instagram URL – apparently, some agencies now include their model’s social media following alongside information like height and weight on their websites. The first two models in the KMA were released on the company’s Instagram feed – and include sixteen-year-old Elfie Reigate, who just walked for Alexander McQueen at Paris Fashion Week and male model Louis Baines.
For Kate Moss, this is just the next step for her in achieving her creative goals. ?I could’ve sold my soul ages ago. There’s no excitement in that. I’d rather create things that excite me,? Moss says. ?I think people know what they like, they just don’t have it. So hopefully I can give them things that are not available now. It’s always classic in my head but then it’s always a twist. There’s always going to be some kind of toughness. Not hard necessarily but just a bit off. A bit mad. Nothing is too serious.?
Read the full interview over on Business of Fashion here.
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