Photography by Mario Testino (Click images to enlarge)

It is no secret that Kate Moss is the most successful supermodel. The reason for her success maybe less obvious and hard to pin down, but the main is pretty simple — Moss is a blank canvas, and this is the supreme quality of a model. She adapts looks like Madonna adopts stage personalities. Upon this blankness, the designer, the make up artist, the photographer can layer whatever characters they choose.
Mario Testino is one of those photographers. To celebrate the model, he is releasing a book titled Kate Moss by Mario Testino (Taschen, $700) later this month. The book is appropriately swathed in luxury like Moss in designer clothes — the edition is limited to 1,500 copies, each numbered and signed by Testino himself. Half of them will be distributed through Taschen flagship stores, half some will go online.
    The silver tome, encased in pink plastic, is gorgeous. Its 230 pages contain 100 photos of Moss ranging from 1993 to 2010, which subtly lets you know that Moss just doesn’t age. Testino is not only a long time collaborator, but also Moss’s friend and the images reflect that. The pictures range from the most intimate — Kate’s shoe closet, who doesn’t want to see that?! — to the most glamorous. She is depicted, alternately, naked or holding her daughter, glammed up or in jeans, vulnerable or impenetrable. Many of the photos are being published for the first time, and the book certainly makes for a beautiful homage to a beautiful icon.