Kate Moss: Icon or Addict

Kate Moss. What comes to mind when you hear that name? Supermodel, Drug Taker, style-icon, mum, actor, singer or a walking billboard of what you will see every teenager around the world wearing the next week? As a matter of fact she comes under all those things.

Katherine Moss born on the 16th of January, 1974 was the English teenager who was discovered at the age of 14 by the founder of an exclusive modeling agency in New York. Sarah Doukas as she is called spotted Moss at the JFK Airport in New York City after Kate had just come back from a vacation in the Bahamas.

A short time later she was gracing the cover of British Magazine, The Face. She then went on to become the face of Calvin Klein, she was known as the Ð''anti-supermodel" of the 1990's because of her waif-heroin-chic look, and at only 5"6 she wasn't the typical height of supermodels of her time as Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.

Despite the height-disadvantage Kate took the modeling world by storm becoming one the highest paid supermodels and graced the advertisements and runway of such designers as Gucci, Dolce & Gabanna, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Chanel, Missoni and David Yurman. Now in her 30's Kate is still modeling and has lately has appeared in more advertising campaigns since the pictures of her allegedly snorting cocaine at a Babyshambles recording session was published by the English magazine, The Daily Mirror. Her boyfriend at the time Pete Doherty is the lead singer of The Babyshambles and has been battling a drug addiction for years now. After the pictures were exposed Kate has ended the relationship with Doherty in November 2005.

Things got hard for Moss then as H&M announced they were dropping Kate's contract from their advertising campaign that was reportedly worth around 4 million pounds a year.

The next month fashion houses Burberry and Chanel announced the were dropping Moss from their campaigns. After a few months Kate was granted an advertising contract with fashion house Roberto Cavalli.

Kate's family were affected by this controversy the most although her mother, ex-boyfriend Jefferson Hack and daughter Lila Grace visited her frequently while she spent one month in the Arizona Rehabilitation Center.

Roberto Cavalli was the first fashion House and it all shot-up from there as she then signed contracts with Rimmel, Virgin