Moss & Freud: A documentary release sparks retrospective on Kate Moss’s enduring cultural footprint
From the 1993 British Vogue shoot to her Glastonbury appearance, Kate Moss’s aesthetic legacy is examined alongside the release of James Lucas’s latest documentary.
A new documentary film titled 'Moss & Freud', directed by James Lucas and executive produced by Kate Moss, has been released. The film explores the model’s friendship with painter Lucian Freud in 2002, when she sat for a lifesize naked portrait that later sold for £3.5 million. The release coincides with retrospective coverage of Moss’s fashion career, including her 1993 British Vogue shoot, her 2005 Glastonbury appearance, and her 2014 Brit Awards tribute to David Bowie.
Moss was scouted aged 14 at New York’s JFK airport and quickly went on to define the fashion aesthetic of the 1990s. Her career has included 43 issues of British Vogue, campaigns spanning Calvin Klein to Chanel, and catwalk moments ranging from Tom Ford to Demna’s Gucci debut. She has been sculpted by Marc Quinn and painted by Chuck Close, Banksy, and Freud, the latter now being the subject of the new film.
The documentary examines the model’s friendship with the then 80-year-old painter during 2002, when she sat for him while pregnant. That lifesize naked portrait later sold for £3.5 million. Ahead of the film’s release, writers have reflected on their memories of Moss’s style from the 1990s to the present day.
One vivid memory is of the 1993 June issue of British Vogue featuring a Corinne Day shoot. The images, taken in Moss’s shabby flat, were described as an earthquake in fashion, launching a new school of photography. Moss has recently spoken out about being bullied on set by Day during the shoot. The photograph is now held in the V&A.
Other notable moments include Moss’s 2005 appearance at Glastonbury, where she wore a barely there minidress, a boyish leather jacket, and mud-splattered Hunter boots. This look has become part of fashion mythology, with Gen Z attempting to recreate it 20 years later. In 2014, Moss paid tribute to David Bowie at the Brit Awards in a Kansai Yamamoto bodysuit Bowie had worn as Ziggy Stardust in 1972.
Moss’s influence on party dress trends is also highlighted. In 1993, she wore an iridescent Liza Bruce dress to a party, pairing it with flip-flops and black underwear. In a 2022 video for Vogue, she expressed amazement that the dress was still being discussed 30 years later. Additionally, a primrose-yellow vintage 1950s dress she wore to a 2003 party inspired a version in her 2007 Topshop collection, though she stated in 2022 that she did not know the whereabouts of the original.