British Vogue cover star Lila Moss on modelling: 'My mum always put me off'
Lila Moss, daughter of supermodel and fashion icon Kate Moss, has opened up about her caution when becoming a model after her mum always tried to 'put her off'.
Lila has made her British Vogue cover debut at just 19, for the publication's May 2022 issue, following in her mother's footsteps who has appeared 43 times, though she is still "very much doing things her own way," says British Vogue's editor-in-chief Edward Enninful.
"My mum always put me off [modelling]," she told the magazine. "She was like, 'If you wanna do it, you can, but I wouldn't recommend it'."
Read more: Kate Moss’ daughter Lila praised for wearing an insulin pump on the runway
Suggesting why, British Vogue's writer Ellie Pithers references the time Kate, who was scouted as a model at 14, said she had a 'nervous breakdown' just a few years into her career after straddling a shirtless Marky Mark (former stage name of Mark Wahlberg) for a 1992 Calvin Klein campaign.
"Nobody takes care of you mentally," she told Vanity Fair in 2012. "There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do."
Lila adds, "When I was younger she was scared that I'd fall into the same trap, I think."
The rising star shot her first campaign for Marc Jacobs Beauty when she was 15 and had her first catwalk booking for Miu Miu when she opened and closed the spring/summer 2021 show just after she turned 18. She has also walked for Richard Quinn, and even shared the runway with her mother at a Fendi fashion show in Paris last year.
Read more: A look back at Kate Moss' early catwalks as her daughter Lila Grace joins her on the Fendi runway
Lila told the magazine she was eight when she began to properly process her mother's fame. "That was when I realised the paparazzi thing, that they were interested in her, for some reason," she explains.
"Then I went to secondary school and everyone was like, 'Oh, your mum's Kate Moss!' You don't really have a filter when you're that young and I was like 'How do you know who she is? She's old and boring!'"
It's only in recent years that Lila has had to admit her mother's style is "actually really cool", despite the fact she "doesn't have a good trackies selection".
Read more: Kate Moss attends New York Fashion Week show with lookalike teenage daughter Lila Grace
But is she anxious her modelling success could lead to the fame her parents tried to shield her from (with her father, Jefferson Hack, also a big name in the media industry)?
"Not really," Lila tells British Vogue. "I've seen it first-hand, so I'm much more able to cope with it. I've had to say no to people. But I'm always nice!"
The British Vogue May 2022 issue featuring Lila is on newsstands from 26 April.
Watch: Kate Moss' 'uncomfortable' early modelling days
