By Bianca Posterli
There are many stories of supermodel turned designer, but Kate Moss knew that if she ever designed a range of clothes it would have to be perfect. So how ideal is the pairing of the iconic style icon and Topshop?
Topshop has been a staple in London for years, inciting envy from fashion girls in the U.S. and around the world. And while it certainly took long enough for the brand to come stateside, Sir Philip Green overcame building setbacks and planning issues, finally opening in New York April 2009 to great fanfare.
But beyond the affordable clothes and great designs, there’s the undeniably cool fact that the retailer was able to convince Kate to design her own line for the store.
It all began in 2006 when Sir Philip met Kate at a charity event, where he bid £60,000 to win a kiss from the supermodel. Shortly after, he announced the plan for their design collaboration based on her amazing personal style and trendsetting talent. It was a fashion love affair ever after.
Ever since Kate’s first line launched and sold out immediately in May 2007, she’s continued to stun the fashion community by regularly choosing to wear her own creations on the red carpet. She wore a specially designed Topshop dress to the Swarovski Fashion Rocks event in 2007, inspired by a 1920s piece from her own closet. By donning her Topshop threads to other fashion events like the 7th on Sale Gala in 2007 and the Met’s Costume Institute that same year, Kate has proved that her style is perfectly acceptable on the red carpet.
During the opening festivities for the U.S. store, Kate wore all Topshop, all the time. Though she was a no-show the first night, she changed her outfit a total of four times for the following two days of parties. First was her multicolored Liberty print dress for the store walk-through; later she wore a strapless beige-and-green short cocktail dress for the dinner at Balthazar. When the store finally opened to the public, Kate wore her long emerald green dress paired with a black motorcycle jacket, but changed into a beige dress and white blazer for the after-party at the Box, all the while on the arm of Sir Philip.
In addition to bringing her style to girls everywhere, Kate also remembers her friends. When she was the guest editor for Vogue Paris in 2005, Kate helped launch Irina Lazareanu’s career by picking her to model for the issue. And though Kate has posed for many of her lookbooks for Topshop, she had Irina model her designs for Spring ‘07.
While her creations range from sparkly to rocker girl, Kate consistently pushes herself in the design world. For her first collection available in the States, Kate teamed up with the London-based Liberty print designers and pulled tons of prints from its archive. Along with her sweet dresses, she branched out with a lingerie line for the store as well.
Luckily Kate lovers outside of London and New York can visit the website to get their hands on pieces from her collection. But Topshop plans to keep expanding, so hopefully that means that there’ll be countless more designs from the supermodel, too!
See more of Kate’s style here.
