In 1990, the fashion world was a parade of Amazonian glamazonry. We’re talking Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista—women who looked like they were sculpted from marble and dipped in gold. Then, a self-taught photographer named Corinne Day went digging through a "maybe" drawer at Storm Management and found a Polaroid of a 15-year-old from Croydon with a crooked smile and a slightly "alien" face.
That girl was Kate Moss.
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What followed wasn’t just a career-making discovery; it was a cultural car crash that changed how we look at beauty, for better or worse. Honestly, the bond between Corinne Day and Kate Moss was more like a sisterhood than a professional gig. They were two working-class girls who basically decided to flip the bird to the high-gloss, padded-shoulder artifice of the '80s.
The Summer of Love and the Headdress
The big bang happened in the July 1990 issue of The Face. The editorial was titled "The 3rd Summer of Love," and the cover is now legendary: a young, freckled Kate grinning in a feathered Native American headdress.
Most people don't realize how low-budget that shoot actually was. It wasn't some high-end production with a trailer full of catering. Corinne, Kate, and stylist Melanie Ward headed down to a freezing Camber Sands. They used second-hand clothes, jumble sale finds, and Birkenstocks. Kate was topless in some shots, looking less like a "supermodel" and more like a kid having a laugh on a messy weekend.
Corinne hated how she had been treated when she was a model—made up to look like someone else, hidden under layers of foundation. She wanted the opposite for Kate. She wanted the bags under the eyes. She wanted the "scraggy" hair. She wanted the truth.
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Why "Under-Exposure" Broke the Internet (Before the Internet)
If The Face shoot made them famous, the 1993 British Vogue editorial "Under-Exposure" made them targets. This is where the term "heroin chic" really started to stick, and not in a way that Corinne or Kate particularly enjoyed.
The photos were shot in Day’s own cramped Soho flat. No fancy lighting. No airbrushing. Just Kate in her knickers, leaning against a radiator or lounging on a dingy bed. The media absolutely lost it. They called it "child porn." They said it glamorized anorexia. Even Bill Clinton eventually weighed in, wagging a finger at the fashion industry for making drug addiction look "cool."
But if you look at those photos today, they don't feel like drug propaganda. They feel like a girl in her bedroom. Corinne was trying to capture "dirty realism," a style that showed the comedown after the party, not the party itself. She once said she loved seeing models with bags under their eyes because it meant they had a life.
The Fallout You Might Not Know About
The backlash was so intense that it actually fractured their relationship. Kate’s agency, Storm, wasn't happy with the "raw" look, and eventually, Kate stopped working with Corinne for a long time.
- Kate's perspective: She later admitted she was often crying before those shoots because she felt pressured to be "real" in a way that felt exposed.
- Corinne's perspective: She felt betrayed by the industry. She wasn't trying to be scandalous; she was just bored by the fake stuff.
They did eventually reconcile years later, but that early 90s era was heavy. Corinne started distancing herself from the "high-gloss" world she helped disrupt, moving into documentary work that was even more raw—photographing her friends, their struggles, and eventually her own battle with a brain tumor.
The Legacy of the "Anti-Supermodel"
We still see the ripples of Corinne Day’s work every time a brand does a "raw" or "unfiltered" campaign. She proved that you didn't need to be 6 feet tall with perfect teeth to be an icon. Kate Moss, at 5'7", was the "anti-supermodel" who became the biggest supermodel of them all.
The "heroin chic" label was always a bit of a lazy headline. It was really about grunge—the idea that being "messy" was an aesthetic choice. It was a reaction to a recession, a move away from the "greed is good" era into something more vulnerable and, well, human.
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How to Apply the "Day-Moss" Aesthetic Today
If you’re a photographer or just someone obsessed with the look, the "Corinne Day" vibe isn't about looking sick. It's about:
- Natural Light Only: She lived for daylight.
- Zero Retouching: Keep the scars, the moles, and the tired eyes.
- Real Locations: Stop using studios. Use your messy living room or a cold beach.
- The Interaction: Corinne would talk to Kate, wait for her to laugh or look away, and that was the shot.
If you want to see the real depth of Corinne's vision beyond the fashion world, track down a copy of her book Diary. It’s a gut-punch of a collection that shows exactly why she couldn't just play the "Vogue game." She was a truth-teller in a world of beautiful lies.
For those interested in the history of '90s aesthetics, start by looking at the original prints from the "Fifteen" exhibition. It's the best way to see the evolution of Kate Moss from a Croydon teenager into a face that defined a century. Look past the "heroin chic" headlines and you'll see something much more interesting: a portrait of a genuine friendship captured on film.