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On a cold London evening in September 1993, Kate Moss attended a party fêting the Elite Modeling Agency’s ‘Look of the Year’ at the Hilton Hotel. The supermodel had just arrived after attending an intimate Radiohead show at a pub in Camden. She entered the soirée to a slew of paparazzi flashes that captured one of the 90s decade-defining looks, and arguably Moss’ most memorable fashion moment of all time: a naked slip dress designed by Liza Bruce for her eponymous Spring/Summer 1994 collection.
The sheer silver garment defined her sartorial oeuvre, spawning countless imitations, replications and adorations in the years that followed. In 2024, a time when fervour for 90s minimalism and possessing one-of-a-kind vintage items peaked, it’s only fitting that the piece be passed onto a new owner.
From the team behind the biggest sale of Chanel Haute Couture of all time comes a new auction set to titillate fashion savants with savings to dispose of. On April 16, an exact replica of Moss’ iconic sheer slip will go on sale via Kerry Taylor Auctions as part of their “Vintage Fashion, Antique Costume & Textiles” spring auction.
Though the piece was not actually worn by Moss, the garment is identical to the body-revealing sheath Moss innocuously adorned for a night out. The dress had been in the possession of a former Liza Bruce employee, with the only other publicly known copy of the dress in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Of course, it’s presumed Moss has clung onto the piece for her own archive, if not borrowed from the designer at the time and already bestowed onto Moss’ burgeoning supermodel daughter, Lila Grace Moss. (Moss’ mini me paid homage to the lamé piece in a custom cut-out metallic laminated silk georgette slip by Nensi Dojaka, which she wore to the 2023 British Fashion Awards.)
Kerry Taylor Auction estimates the slip to trade between $383 and $575AUD, but with contemporary ‘It’ girls like Camille Charriere already staking their claim by commenting “would sell my soul for this” on the auctioneer’s post, an all-out bidding war might already be in the works.
For vintage collectors, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve an enduring design. For fans of Moss, including Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy who published a fanzine under the luxuriate dedicated to the Croydon cherub, it’s the ultimate act of devotion.
Speaking of the dress in 2023, Moss claimed, “I did not know that this dress was see-through until the pictures came out the next day in the newspaper!” “It was the flash that made it look naked because actually the fabric, when I was wearing it I didn’t think it looked this see-through but obviously it was,” she added. “Had I known we would be talking about it 30 years later…Good dress, good night.”
Watch Kate Moss discuss her most memorable fashion moments of all time below, and click here for more details on the auction.
