Is there anyone in the business who wouldn’t either like to party with or party like Kate Moss? The supermodel is, after all, as famous for her all-night-long spirit as for her countless covers and campaigns. She’s even popped out of a number of cakes in her time – her own birthday bashes are the stuff of legend.
Last year was a relatively quiet, yet no less stylish, affair. A gathering of close friends met at a private dining space in Mayfair’s China Tang restaurant to watch her blow out the candles on a cake decorated with Vogue covers throughout the years. And when it comes to dressing for your own party? No one does it quite like Moss.
Moss’s 25th birthday is one of the most memorable, perhaps because it is one of her few parties to be photographed and made public – her no-camera rule is now infamous, if not implicit. But back in 1999, when Donatella Versace hosted a star-studded do in her honour in Paris, that wasn’t the case. In a lace-trimmed strapless dress, fresh-from-the-runway braids in a high ponytail, Moss blew out candles and sparklers on her diamond-shaped cake surrounded by Liv Tyler, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Christina Ricci.
A few years before, her 21st birthday was hosted by then boyfriend Johnny Depp at notorious LA club, The Viper Room. Pictures are scarce, but the hedonistic tales are infamous... What we know for certain is that John Galliano designed and gifted Moss a white slip dress for the occasion. “It has travelled with me everywhere over the years, it's the most perfect dress.” (In 1997, she lent that same slip to Sadie Frost for her wedding to Jude Law.
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Moss’s formative style evolve, from grunge girl through minimalism to high-end vintage – often digging out rare pieces for her red carpet appearances. She did exactly that on her 30th birthday in 2004, in a floor-length, sequinned dress first worn by Britt Ekland to the 1974 premiere of The Man with the Golden Gun. The dress could not have been more perfect for the party theme: The Beautiful and Damned, in tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s decadent tale of broken morality. Festivities started with drinks at Claridge’s, continued at Sam Taylor-Johnson’s (then Taylor-Wood) house, before returning to Claridge’s until beyond early hours.
Read more: From See-Through Slips To Skinny Scarves: How To Dress Like Kate Moss
By 2007, Moss had a definitive rock and roll edge; transforming off-duty style with menswear staples, shaggy fur coats and skinny scarves. She celebrated her 33rd birthday with then boyfriend Pete Doherty, stepping out in a white belted dress and cream fur coat on an evening that started at London’s Donmar theatre, watching Rhys Ifans as Don Juan, and who knows where it ended.
A year later, for her 34th, Moss threw a big party at Punk in London’s Soho, wearing a Chanel star-print dress, gold star eye makeup to match and equally celestial curls.
Moss’s birthday suit took centre stage in her 40th year: photographed by Mert and Marcus for her Playboy debut, which coincided with the magazine’s 60th anniversary. (She, of course, wore the classic bunny outfit with Saint Laurent Paris Escarpin heels.) Her official birthday celebrations were said to go on for more than 100 hours, starting with lunch at 34 Mayfair in London, where she arrived with then husband Jamie Hince, wearing her signature leopard-print coat, an LBD and patent brogues. (The restaurant also created the Kate Moss Coupe champagne glass in celebration of her 40th.)
Read more: Stella McCartney On Why Kate Moss And Kaia Gerber Are Her Women Of Today And Tomorrow\
Not a year goes by without tales surfacing from the super’s storied birthday celebrations on 16 January. Be it her medieval-inspired 35th, which was said to have lasted four whole days; her psychedelic chic-themed 40th at her Cotswolds home, where heart tattoos served as party souvenirs; or a David Bowie tribute to mark her 42nd. They say the best parties are the ones that don't live on in pictures, and perhaps they’re right.
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