I found this iconic issue of The Face from July 1990 in the attic, along with the Depp & Kylie covers I posted last week. The cover and topless image are reproduced constantly, but I don’t recall seeing the others recently, so thought I’d scan them for your edification.
Kate Moss was fifteen when she shot the story, styled by Melanie Ward, which launched her career. The photographs were taken on Camber Sands in England, a traditional seaside resort, and were astonishing for their raw, verité feel; an antidote to the glossy Vogue supermodels. The images were seen by Fabien Baron, and Moss’s relationship with Calvin Klein began. It’s difficult to over emphasise how influential this story was at the time.
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wow! beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing them. these photos show that some people always have that certain special quality, kates always had it!
She was so young and fresh…too young to be topless, actually!
Gosh, is she really smoking on page one? How times have changed.
I love the fact the photos are in black and white as well.
Poppy xox
I'm slightly green with jealousy at the fact that you have the issue. Not that I could have gotten my hands on it, or realised just what it was at the time (I was five years old). And it's telling that, even twenty years later, that shoot doesn't look dated.
Hi LLG!
I somehow stumbled upon your blog last week and have since read the whole (yes, every word) thing!
Love your writing style and adventures!
http://sheworeitwell.blogspot.com
The Stone Roses at Spike Island (on the cover)? I remember that very well, I heard the whole thing sitting in my back garden!
I used to subscribe to The Face magazine & Sky magazine (pre-satellite, non TV guide!) as a teenager. I had them piled up behind my bedroom door. On returning home after
& the rest were taken up the rubbish tip! I was horrified!!! This was one of the best covers & as you said, pioneering in the direction fashion was about to take. Great post. Thank you x
my first term at uni, literally out of the house for 2 months, I was dismayed to see they'd all disappeared! Mum had given some to the local hairdresser (must have been a change from Chat & Take A Break
She is so gorgeous. I have to say though, I think she has gotten even better with age. So very rare!
Wow – can't believe that that was 20 years ago!
aw, she's such a cutie
They are still one of my favourite fashion shots ever! One of the most beautiful faces… Wishing you a happy and well organised start to the year. Sabine x
It's so nice to see these pictures again. Kate looks absolutely beautiful. I can't quite believe they're 20 years old! xx
how typical of me to be sending my sister-in-law to a now-defunct den… whoops. ammended. thanks for that! x
She looked beautiful there!
I love this editorial. I vividly remember when it first came out, especially all the cries of "Heroin Chic" that ensued. Which is strange, because I remember at the time thinking she did look a bit too thin, but looking at the pics now, she looks like quite a healthy, normal 15 yr old. Was it all those decriers that convinced me she looked like a junky? Or have models become progressively thinner so as to make these pics now look like comparatively healthy images?
The start of something huge!!
Love these photos!
http://fashionroadkill-halifax.blogspot.com
What an awesome magazine edition to find in your attic!
Happy New Year to you too xx
She looks so impossibly fresh faced. I also love that the pictures are not overly posed. Thanks for sharing.
Wow! 20 years ago? I feel so old!
I used to buy The Face sometimes when I was a magazine addict. That and Select magazine were my favourites when I was at Uni……along with the plethora of others I couldn't resist!
Kate was so young in the pictures!
That's one of my all-time favorite covers! Kate looks like a child, which I guess she was, really, and so refreshingly un-styled.
I remember this issue well. It didn't seem very shocking to me, although it did seem very "new" and different (I was about the same age as Kate Moss) NOW I can't believe anyone could have taken topless photos of a child of 15, not to mention smoking! I suppose style/fashion magazines can always get away with things….thanks for posting..it took me back! xxx
♥ this is like a time machine.
I was *such* a Kate Moss fangirl back in the 1990s. She's around my age, and at the time, she was the closest image in the media to what my friends and I looked like (only prettier!)..impish, scrawny, imperfect. The girls of 90210 who populated Teen magazine were too polished and groomed. Kate, with her freckles, slightly crooked teeth, and expressive face, seemed so much more "real."
This reminds me of when I moved to London aged 19 and The Face was my bible.. I've still got those issues at home!
I think the forgotton hero of this pictures is the talented Corinne Day, whom is now very ill with a brain tumour. She has been having to release Ltd edition prints of a young Kate Moss to pay for her treatment. For a woman who helped 'break' Moss – where is Moss in helping fund her life saving treatment?
Hi,
This Face mag has the Stone Roses gig in it and some pretty cool photos of me and my bf at the time – I was 16. Id love to get photos of those pages… Do you think you might…?
I’d be so eternally grateful!
SJ
hey Sadie I have no idea where it is – somewhere at my mother’s for sure, but we are selling the house and all is chaos. but now I know you want to see it, I;ll try to hunt it out!
Yes the photographs are fantastic. But a topless shot of a 15 year old child smoking a cigarette? Blimey….how did they get away with that one?
Vow, these pics take me back! Gorgeous in hindsight…although at the time I did wonder what the fuss was about…she’s definitely grown into her looks!
There was another genius behind these images, the black and white printer, a guy called Roberto Marcotullio based in London, this guy was the legend behind most of the Top professional photographers of the time. He saw something special in Corrines’ work and agreed to print for her, although the work of the B/W printer is forgotten and misunderstood these day, his help in choosing and shaping these images was an integral part of their success. I still love this story. http://www.photography-factory.co.uk
This guy was the kingmaker.
i have a collection of the face mags some rare im looking to sell them whats the best sites to do this .thank lee…
She might be smiling in the topless shot but she looks far from comfortable. All I see is exploitatation of a 16 year old girl. How can you all praise Day for these photos?
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