Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd Kate Moss: The Complete Picture

ケイト・モス、９０年代から今だに現役で活躍してる数少ない、というか唯一のカリスマモデルではないでしょうか。美人なんだかそうでないんだかよくわからない容貌とメリハリのないスレンダーボディでなぜかファッションアイコンの座を死守しています。何でこの人がこれほどまでにモデルとして支持されるのか、それもビクトリアズシークレットのようなミーハーなのではなくてもっと芸術性が高いとでもいうかわけがわからん系のクリエイティブな方面から（まぁ、これをハイ・ファッションと称するのでしょうが）、それが知りたくてこの本を買って読んでみました。結局、この本は私の疑問には何一つ答えてくれませんでした。この本に書かれてることって、ウィキとかファンの個人ブログに載ってるようなことがほとんどだし、何しろこの著者ってケイトに近しい人間でもなければ、業界の事情通ってわけでもない人らしいので、多分あちらのエンタメ詳しい人なら誰でも知ってるような話ばっかです。しかも、さらに厄介なことに、著者がケイトをリスペクトしてるのか、それとも迂闊なこと書いてにらまれたら怖いのか、批判的なトコは迂回してるというか、ぼやかしちゃってるので何が言いたいのかよくわからん。２００５年のコカイン・ケイトの事件なんて、最大のヤマ場だろうにここに割いてるページ数が少ないうえに当時の彼氏のピートドハーティに責任があるかのような書き方してるけどケイト自身にも落ち度がいっぱいあるだろうよ。２００５年当時、私はトロントにいたのでこの事件は毎日報道されてました、で、色んなエンタメ番組で彼女の生い立ちなんかも特集されたりしてそれで得た情報以上のものはこの本からは得られなかったです。何より気にくわないのはこの著者がケイト・モスというビックネームに対して腰が引けてるところです、そんなことじゃジャーナリストと言えんぞ、喝ーっツ！バイオグラファーなら同じ英国のアンドリュー・モートンを見習って皇太子すらもアホ呼ばわりするようなアナーキーさが欲しいところ！Anarchy in the UK!!

Ich habe letztendlich ca. ein halbes Jahr benötigt, um dieses Buch zu lesen.Ich habe zwar nicht so viel Zeit gehabt, wiederum war es auch nicht entsprechend interessant, dass ich es in jeder freien Minute gelesen hätte.Es zieht sich irre lange hin, der Anfang ist noch in Ordnung, aber im Mittelteil wird nur noch davon geredet, welche Party sie besuchte, welches Kleid sie trug und wer noch da war (dessen Lebensgeschichte wurde dann natürlich auch noch 3 Seiten lang ausführlichst beschrieben).Der Pete-Teil am Ende war dann natürlich wieder etwas spannender.Dann ist mir noch aufgefallen (was für viele wohl belanglos sein mag), dass das ganze Buch weitestgehend in american English statt in british English geschrieben ist.Man erfährt glaube ich nirgends, woher Laura Collins kommt, jedoch hätte ich mir gewünscht, dass ein Buch über ein BRITISCHES Model auch in BE geschrieben ist (ein Grund, warum ich mir das Buch überhaupt gekauft hatte).Und ich mag es nicht, wenn Bücher so einen Papier-Umschlag haben, den man abmachen kann, weil er nervt, der aber dann überall rumliegt und stört.Für Deutsche sollte der Inhalt eigentlich recht verständlich sein.Man weiß worum es geht, und das, was man nicht versteht, scheint auch eh nicht soo wichtig zu sein, da es sich meistens nur über irgendein Kleid oder einen weiteren Celebrity-Gast handelt.

As someone who doesn't really enjoy biographies or have much interest in Kate Moss I didn't really expect to enjoy this book - but when my flatmate finished it she insisted I have a read. I'm glad she did - it is great stuff - a well researched, non-judgemental, portrait of a modern day icon. Fans will love it, and non fans (like me) cannot help but be fascinated by this unique insight into the enigmatic Moss. Collins' writing style also kept me, an avid fiction reader rather than biographies, hooked till the end.

I can’t understand how she kept so thin when she was drinking so much. It seems she achieved success through her vibrant personality. But she also worked very hard - she once flew to America and back three times in one week for shoots. She had the right look at the right time in the early 1990s (London chic). I imagine that the “Daily Mail” style in which this book is written is not everyone’s cup of tea but I like it. I think that people who enjoy this book might also like books by Anne de Courcy like “The Fishing Fleet” or “The Viceroy’s Daughters”.In a world where specialisation seems key should we be surprised if some people specialise in partying?If you develop as a child into a lifestyle where you strive for more parties and then all of a sudden you have unlimited resources to party then excess is surely inevitable. Not many of us escape early childhood conditioning.There always seems to be a way for people to sexualise things - even religion managed it with art. The statue in front of St Paul’s Cathedral in London of Queen Anne (1886) is another example. Is fashion photography in our consumer age just another example?

I'm sure Kate Moss is a pretty interesting character, but we learn very little about her in this tabloid style horrorshow of a biography. The tone is that of a Daily Mail showbiz article, and with just as little devotion to factuality. 'Kate must have felt...' is a sentence that comes up every couple of pages, as the author attempts to dramatise situations as if they are part of a shoddy romance novel. "Clark was fighting back the tears as they parted," she states confidently when describing the time Moss split with her first serious boyfriend. How she knows this is unclear, as there are no sources, verifications or even quotes used to affirm these numerous assertions.It seems she has no other choice to write like this, as she hasn't actually secured any interviews with Moss or indeed any of the major players in her story. The few people who do talk, usually hairdressers or stylists, are invariably described as 'one of Kate's best friends' or 'very close to the model', however tenuous the link between them. It is arguable that with such a paucity of sources or even real engagement with the subject this book should never have been written.On many occasions the writer is just wrong. As one reviewer earlier pointed out, she gets the full name of her subject wrong within the first twenty pages. Later she claims a summer 1990 shoot was inspired by a shared love of Nirvana between Corinne Day and Moss; given that no Nirvana release had even charted in Britain at that point, and Bleach was very much an obscure, underground release even in the USA, this is a ridiculous claim. Other errors like this are scattered throughout what is in general a dreadful book. You could learn as much with a couple of hours internet browsing as you can reading this work.