“Call it gamine or call it new bohemian,” British Vogue declared in its March 1993 issue. “Either way spring ’93 heralds a refreshing style that’s half feminine, half tomboy, and wholly pretty.” There to model the “longer skirts, wider trousers, skinnier tops, and floatier fabrics” that defined the season (and, indeed, the ’90s)? None other than Kate Moss and Rosemary Ferguson, captured by Corinne Day for her now-iconic Fashion’s New Spirit editorial. As Moss turns 50, revisit Ferguson’s memories from the Vogue set.
“Even all of these years later, I still remember this shoot, because we were on location in a playing field for a lot of it, and it all felt a bit Calamity Jane. I drove there in my little car with Kate Moss and the hair stylist James Brown. I’d only just passed my driver’s test, and I vaguely recall us nearly getting hit by a bus in Streatham in my little Renault 5 on our way there. We were all good friends, so shoots together were always a bit of a laugh for us – or a shambles, depending on your perspective!”
“It’s funny, because shoots in the ’90s were so different from today: incredibly lo-fi, everything thrown haphazardly into bags, a location bus. Actually, the location in the photographs is Kate’s old school [Riddlesdown Collegiate in Croydon]. I remember glancing over at her between portraits, and she had started chatting to a teacher, so she had hidden her cigarette behind her back like a naughty teenager.”
“We shot the Fashion’s New Spirit Editorial over a couple of days, half of which were in a studio somewhere in London. This whole editorial just felt so Corinne. Everything appeared magically out of a hold-all, you put on a bit of dark eyeliner and passed a straightening iron through your hair – and you were off.”
“There’s one picture of me on the school football pitch in a long Donna Karan waistcoat that I recall distinctly. It was quite cold and drizzly, and I’m one of those people who has to have their hair dried and set before going out. After a few hours tearing around on the grass though, my hair started curling again, which you can see in the picture. I remember being like, ‘Damn it!’”
“One of my favourite pictures is of me, crouching down in this flowery blue Polo Ralph Lauren dress and clogs. It stands out in my mind because I loved a clog at the time, and the dress felt quite girly and fun because I mostly wore crop-tops and jeans and trainers in my real life. And then there’s the photograph of me in the sheer Calvin Klein dress… All of those photographs have really stood the test of time, in the end.”
