Kate Moss was discovered at New York’s JFK Airport in 1988 by Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Model Management.
Moss was 14 when Doukas noticed her at the airport while Moss was returning to England from a family holiday. The encounter led to representation and the beginning of a modeling career that quickly developed in a direction different from the tall, athletic image associated with many prominent models of the 1980s.
Her slight frame and youthful appearance became central to the “heroin chic” fashion aesthetic of the 1990s, although that phrase refers to a controversial visual trend rather than Moss’s personal identity. She worked with major photographers and designers and became one of the most commercially influential models of her generation.
The discovery story is often simplified as happening in London, but the commonly reported location was JFK Airport in New York. Sarah Doukas’s Storm agency also represented other notable models, including Cara Delevingne decades later.