Kate Moss was discovered at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1988.
Storm Model Management founder Sarah Doukas noticed Moss at the airport when Moss was 14 years old. The encounter led to representation and helped launch a career that would reshape the prevailing look of fashion modeling in the 1990s. Moss was notably shorter and slimmer than many established runway stars of the supermodels era.
Her first major editorial breakthrough came through British fashion magazines, and her association with photographer Mario Sorrenti helped establish her early image. She later became strongly associated with Calvin Klein, especially through campaigns photographed by Mario Testino and other leading fashion photographers.
The airport discovery is often simplified into a story that Moss was found in London, but the commonly cited location was JFK in New York. She was born in Croydon, London, in 1974. Her career is frequently discussed alongside the “waif” aesthetic that became prominent in the early 1990s, contrasting with the glamorous, athletic image of earlier supermodels.