Debutante Clothing :: The Deblog :: A vintage clothing and fashion blog for unconventional style where vintage, street and runway meet.

Kate Moss is one of those people that you can't help but stare at. She has managed to rise above the bad press and bad behavior, with an eternal sense of style that is unique and not overt.

Angela Buttolph has written a biography of Kate Moss: Kate Moss Style - Inside the World's Most Famous Wardrobe. Many will argue what exactly her wardrobe is famous for. Kate is the queen of disheveled intrigue - even in a torn vintage Dior, she manages to make a fashion statement. Diane Pernet, whom I had the pleasure of meeting during LA Fashion Week, recently interviewed Buttolph where she talks about her journey through Kate's wardrobe, her attempt to decipher her style, and the enchantment of vintage.

I have republished bits of the interview, with Diane Pernet's permission, that vintage maven's like us would find amusing. For the rest of the interview, please be sure to check out Diane Pernet's insightful blog on the world of fashion, and fashion around the world.

DP: If you had to make a list of qualifications for what makes a style icon, what would they be?

AB:
1. Have interests outside of fashion that make you aware of a different kind of cool; e.g. music, art, cinema etc.
2. Surround yourself with brilliant, creative people at the top of their game; artists, photographers, musicians.
3. Study iconic photographs, to broaden your visual language.
4. Try on thousands and thousands of clothes; clothes that you don't think you will like, or that you think won't suit you, until you develop a 'third eye' for style that releases you from conventional thinking about how to put clothes together.
5. Learn to appreciate any garment purely on its own value, not on whether it is fashionable now.
6. Educate yourself about the work of vintage designers; learn to appreciate a quality of fabric and cut that is no longer available.
7. Go the other way -wear a tuxedo and leather trousers to the Metropolitan Ball when everyone is in long gowns, or wear a sweet Fifties prom dress and swept back hair to the NME music awards.
8. Innovate. Mix things that shouldn't go together; a lace Victorian mourning cape with pvc jeans, punk boots with a sequined dress.
9. Never look like you are trying too hard.
10. When in doubt, buy diamonds.

DP: Who was the most fun to interview?

AB: All those crazy vintage dealers! I learnt so much about vintage fashion during my researc, which I tried to pass on in the book.

My favourite interviewee was Tracy Tolkien (of vintage dealers Steinberg & Tolkien) who has the same passion for vintage clothes that Kate does, which proved very insightful - three quarters of Kate's wardrobe is vintage, so to understand her style, you have to understand that love for vintage fashion.

DP: What was the funniest thing that happened while writing this book?

AB: We had a tip off that a beautiful vintage beaded silver flapper dress, that Kate wore on the red carpet with Johnny Depp in 1994, was previously owned by the ex-wife of Hollywood movie star Errol Flynn.

Eventually we got hold of a contact number for Flynn's ex-wife in Jamaica. We finally got her on the phone, and down this crackly long distance line was this brilliantly deep Bette Davies voice and she rasped "I know the dress you mean, and I wouldn't be caught dead in it".

And of course, we realized, we had contacted the wrong ex-wife.

You can pre-order Kate Moss Style at Amazon.co.uk