8. Kate Moss

By Camilla Morton

When Kate Moss shows up at gallery openings or plunks down in the front row at a runway show, her picture is plastered across every British tabloid the next day. Not that she's the subject of much juicy gossip; the affair with Johnny Depp is long over, and her runway days are currently on hold. But the tiny model, who was discovered in an airport lounge at 14 and went on to launch a thousand waif looks, continues to inspire designers, fashion photographers and even artists. There isn't a stylish woman out there--from Cameron Diaz to Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld--who wouldn't kill to raid Moss's closet.

It's not complicated: if Moss wears it, everyone else wants to wear it too. For designers, there's really no better way to improve their image or move merchandise. Last winter Moss showed up at Manolo Blahnik's Design Museum show in London wearing a shredded Lanvin dress and sent fashionistas clamoring for anything by Alber Elbaz. At Mario Testino's exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, she wore a Balenciaga dress and a fur stole, and--poof!--Tom Ford was designing fur stoles. Last summer she turned up at a cosmetics party in a pair of Vivienne Westwood platform pumps, and you can bet that platforms will be big this fall.

Marc Jacobs, who looks to Moss for fashion ideas, calls her style "extraordinary." John Galliano, whose Dior fall 2002 couture collection was inspired by Moss, calls her the modern Marilyn Monroe. W magazine dedicated its September issue to her, enlisting more than a dozen photographers and artists to shoot her. When Chuck Close showed Moss his unflattering daguerreotype portrait, she didn't balk. "I've had enough pretty pictures made of me," she said.

Like a star of the silent screen, Moss doesn't talk about her career, the headlines or the rock-'n'-roll lifestyle. "She creates an excitement about herself, through her style and taste--somehow outside of fashion but always fashionable," says Blahnik. Now that's a commodity. --By Camilla Morton