Kate pulls it off
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Her first collection for Topshop had shoppers scrambling over each other as they rushed to fill their bags. Now, with less than a fortnight before Kate Moss's second hits the high street, Polly Vernon takes a peak at what we'll be fighting over this time, and marvels at the extraordinarily enduring style of the girl from Croydon[/FONT]
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Sunday August 26, 2007
The Observer
[/FONT] In just under two weeks, the latest instalment in the Kate Moss for Topshop story will hit the shops. Conceived and designed in close consultation with Moss - the woman whose compelling sense of style has inspired a squillion shopping trips - it will prove very hot indeed. And so it should. Not just because it's Moss-related. But because it's better than the launch collection (which inspired scenes of wild-eyed consumer lust when it arrived on 1 May 2007). 'It's more confident, more original ... representing a grown-up, sexier Kate,' according to Grazia
'It's definitely more trend-driven this season,' says Sara Buys, fashion features editor at Harper's Bazaar. 'Rather than feeling like a succession of pieces that have been copied from Kate's wardrobe, there are "feels" - punk, biker etc. There's a black chiffon dress with a plunging neckline, which was a real highlight for me.' As well as Buys's favourite frock, there are other attention-grabbing pieces. There's a cropped biker jacket designed with reference to Moss's own vintage biker jacket, 'which was actually,' a Topshop insider says, 'a child's jacket, so she wanted to keep the feel of that - shrunken, cute, playful.' There's another dress, flapper-styled and bead-encrusted, that references the dress Moss wore to her 30th birthday bash at Claridges; and yet another in black chiffon with a diamante collar - a piece which, according to industry whispers, Anna Wintour of American Vogue has expressed interest in. There's a roomy tan leather day bag; a tweedy three-piece suit which features wide-leg trousers and a well-cut waistcoat. But there are also some well-executed, more anonymous and understated offerings which will Kate-up your look nicely, without overwhelming it.KM for TS Mark II is also interesting precisely because it is a second collection. Historically, high street/celebrity collaborations barely make it through one scant outing, which ultimately proves to be little more than a promotional exercise for all concerned. Topshop and Kate, however, is a convincing alliance. Moss's celebrity brand and Topshop's consumer one are as accessible as they are credible, as high street as they are hip.
Philip Green, Topshop's overlord, has done much to ally the store to Kate - they socialise together, get pap snapped together, and one of the select editors invited to look at previews observed (somewhat nervously) that Green had been very evident at the viewings.
Finally, it's interesting because it's testimony to the substance of Kate's cachet. Her first collection inspired record sales in the first two hours and performed consistently well over ensuing months. 'I bought stuff at the press launch and I'm still wearing it,' says Melanie Rickey, fashion features editor at Grazia . 'We [fashion editors] all are. We were all there, scrabbling over it.'
Moss's glamour quotient is vast and weirdly transferable. And she's uniquely good at infusing it into the things she wants to flog. 'Kate's building the next level of her brand here, and it's working,' says Rickey. 'Her perfume launches next year and that's predicted to shift £25 million in the first 12 months.'
Will Kate Moss end up being the biggest lifestyle brand on the planet? You bet.
· Kate Moss at Topshop is in store and online from 6 September
.I am so excited to see the preview of her new Topshop collection.Any new pics yet?
and said how do you know something like that. I went 
I thought it was common knowledge. I guess there's a world outside of Kate Moss fans 
Yay! Karma!
