Kate Moss Turns 38 Today! Here Are 18 of Our Favorite Kate Looks of All Time, So Far

Happy Birthday Kate Moss! Can you believe that the multi-millionaire supermodel—once the face of Calvin Klein, the controversial posterchild for early-90s “heroin chic,” and style icon who’s launched a thousand trends—turns 38 years old today? To celebrate, check out some of our all-time favorite Kate Moss looks after the jump. Which are your favorite?

If there’s anyone in the fashion industry’s public eye who’s been so intrinsically tied to my personal fashion consciousness, it’s Kate Moss. I was a young teenager when she became the face of Calvin Klein—the poster child for thin-chic, the party girl who, along with her BFF Naomi Campbell, was photographed doing party girl things wearing thrown-together clothes that epitomized the ideal of youth in the early-90s—a sort of minimalist-meets-70s-throwback-glam, with a touch of grunge.

Kate Moss was inspiring to me not because she was super-thin—something it never occurred to me to emulate (as evidenced by my size 10-12-ness)—but because she seemed so carefree, and her life seemed so fun (though, now we know that she was battling drug and alcohol addiction at certain points in her life). I wanted to dress like her, not only because she had a great eye for style, but because wearing those clothes embodied a sense of freedom that I couldn’t quite place my finger on when I was a 14 or 15 year old trying to get through high school.

Putting this story together wasn’t easy—Kate Moss is, after all, one of the most-photographed women in the world. But here are some of my personal favorite Kate looks. For me, Kate is at her best when she’s just being Kate—not promoting anything, selling a product, or attending a gala event. I like Kate most in London, going about her business, meeting up with friends—I think her stylists’ eye and instinct for color combining comes out best in her everyday life. What do you think?

In 2003, Kate wore this yellow sundress to a private dinner hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow for Another Magazine at now-defunct New York City restaurant Hue. This is the yellow dress that set of yellow-dress-mania in magazines all over the world—seriously, I can’t even begin to count how many “yellow trend” stories appeared in the press afterwards, all because of this one photograph.

Kate wore this stunning sequined gown to her 30th birthday party—and curled her hair!

And here she is the morning after her 30th birthday party—looking fresh as a daisy in another, similar, yellow dress under a leopard coat. I think what really pulls this outfit together is her choice of shoe—a smart T-bar stiletto. What do you think?

Here’s one of Kate’s more daring looks—a totally transparent slip dress (for you young ‘uns, the 90s was the era of slip-dresses) which she wore to the Elite Model Agency Look of the Year party at the Hilton in London in 1993, when she was 19.

And here she is with Naomi again, later that year, at the Designer of the Year Awards during London Fashion Week wearing considerably more clothing.

I really love Kate’s winter looks—especially her collection of giant furry coats. Here, in 2003, she wears a giant black furry jacket to a charity screening of “On the Other Side of the Lens.”

And in a fur gilet later that year walking down the street with Bella Freud in West London. Note: Kate Moss is wearing Ugg boots!

Sadly, that’s the only photo I could find of Mossy wearing Uggs. A year later, in 2004, she was photographed in Mukluks as she was coming out of Zucca in Notting Hill.

Of course, Kate is also well-known for her boot collection—especially these Vivienne Westwood boots that, once she was photographed in them in 2000 (outside a Carlos Santana concert in Notting Hill), became an instant classic that totally sold out of all Vivienne Westwood stores, everywhere. It also spawned an entire decade of knock-offs.

… As did the Hunter boots she wore to tramp through the mud at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005.

Of course, what Kate was arguably best known for was being the face of Calvin Klein’s signature minimalism in the early-to-mid 1990s. Here she is at a 1995 personal appearance at the Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. I don’t know anyone else who could make a simple black and white outfit like this look as chic.

Here she is in simple white with Claudia Schiffer at Cannes in 1998.

I was also really fond of Kate’s Johnny Depp era—here she is with the actor in 1994. They were sort of the junior Brangelina of the ’90s—but super-young, super-cool, and super-mysterious in their matching leather jackets. You can totally see why they were the It-couple, especially in the eyes of teenagers!

Here they are again at the Golden Globe Awards in 1995—did you know that Johnny Depp had that dress specially commissioned for Kate?

Later on, Kate dated magazine publisher Jefferson Hack—here she is at a Mario Testino private exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London in January 2002 in a smock-apron dress. This dress also made the media rounds and was knocked off ad-infinitum.

Looks great under a big furry coat, too.

Another Kate Moss jacket look I love is this one—the structure leopard stand-up-collar jacket over black shorts, worn with black flats and giant sunglasses look she was photographed in coming out of the Marc Jacobs store in SoHo, New York, in September 2006.

And I also love this look—from June of 2006—where she’s wearing a floral dress walking around in the West Village.

At the end of the day, what makes Kate Moss’ style great is that she wears whatever she feels like wearing—and looks fantastic in it because her clothes are a true reflection of her personality. I love this quirky “Ginsberg is God” sweater, for example (and so did all the magazines in 2003, when she wore this to the “White Tea and Diamonds” party at Claridges in London that spring), but it wouldn’t look good on everyone.

I guess that’s the thing, isn’t it? To find pieces you love and go with your gut.

Are you a Kate Moss fan? Tell us what your favorite Kate Moss looks are!

PLUS…

· A gold sculpture of Kate Moss sells for a cool mil

· Do you wear your new stuff out of the store? Kate Moss does.

· Kate Moss’ wedding dress!

Photo credit: Getty Images