I ordered Kate Moss by Mario Testino a while ago and I finally got it today. The photos are so beautiful. I had seen many of them before, but to actually have them (in a very large size I might add - the book was like three times larger than I thought it would be) feels great. I can literally sit and stare at those photos for hours; the beauty of Kate Moss amazes me and nobody portrays it better than Testino.
There was a section called "Mario Testino on Kate Moss" as well as one called "Kate Moss on Mario Testino" where they talked about each other and I loved reading that. It was clear how much love and respect they have for one another and there was no mistaken how deeply fascinated Testino was by Kate when he first met her, and still is. They had such beautiful things to say about each other and it all seemed very genuine. I would have loved for there to be more text though. But I guess quality beats quantity.
Highlights
Mario Testino quotes:
"I met [Kate] very early on but the moment we really bonded was after an early John Galliano show. I went backstage afterwards and I was amazed to see Kate standing there with tears in her eyes. She explained she was sad because she had only been given one outfit to wear. Maybe she felt a bit insecure, maybe she felt she didn’t fit in, but I tried to explain to her that her “difference” was all part of her charm. “Look Kate, let’s be realistic”, I said to cheer her up, “take it as a compliment. In life and fashion there are colognes and perfumes. Colognes fade quickly and are soon gone forever but a single drop of a great perfume stays with you all day long. You are a perfume so stop crying – this is only the beginning. You will last a very long time.” Little did I know how true that would turn out to be… and that I’d made a friend for life! She laughed… the beginning of years of endless laughter."
”She lives more fully than anyone else I know”
“I guess back when we met I did not realize she would become an icon of the ‘now’ for so many people. All I could see or feel was an attraction to someone a lot younger than me.”
“If you watch your life unfold the things that don’t happen – that make you feel outraged and frustrated – can be as important to your success as the things that go the way you believe they should. That belief has been central to my life and hers. It’s not all been great at every moment but it’s ended up being so great overall that we always say, “never explain, never complain.” Everything happens for a reason.”
Kate Moss quotes:
"I thought it was on a shoot for French Glamour [that Mario and I first met], but he always says it was when I did a John Galliano show and I was crying on the steps or something."
"I have never laughed so much in my whole life as with Mario on shoots. Sometimes we know we have to stop but we just can’t, we can’t even look at each other."
“… and I like the pictures [in this book] of me and Lila too. At the time they were taken, she was really young, and I didn’t want the press intruding on her, they were too private… but now the pictures are nostalgic for me.”
“In the press people say “oh, there she is… she’s out again”, and they don’t see me getting up and going to work every day. They just print pictures of me coming out of a party or whatever… I’ve worked hard for 20 years and I’m still working now! The book has a really good balance of work and play and shows that the fashion industry is not the completely vicious place it is so often made out to be. I don’t think it is at all.”Pictures from the book:
