Seen here for the first time, this dreamlike glimpse of the nascent supermodel is part of a cache of outtakes shot by Mario Sorrenti in 1993 for Calvin Klein’s Obsession. That iconic fragrance campaign pivoted on an idea radical in its simplicity: Instead of fabricating romance for marketing’s sake, what if you document it? Klein himself tapped the rising photographer and muse – then inseparable and in love – sending the couple off to Jost Van Dyke, in the British Virgin Islands, where they camped out at a beachfront ruin for 10 days.
“I was 20, she was 18,” Sorrenti recalls in a velvety voiceover in this 16mm clip, describing a moment drenched in freedom and possibility. “We had nothing to lose.”
Raf Simons’s first fragrance at the helm of Calvin Klein, Obsessed for Women, is a reinvention of the iconic fragrance “Obsession” and pays tribute to the original romance and the world’s collective fascination with Kate Moss.
Watching young Kate, dotted with freckles and sand, blinking against the sun is cause for déjà vu. We’ve seen this somehow before – those delicate, clasped arms and hair raked with seawater – only this time, unguarded, she lets out a wordless flicker of exasperation directed at her boyfriend behind the camera, a momentary fissure swept away by the next frame.
“It was like looking at this incredible primitive beauty.” – Mario Sorrenti
