“Let them eat Kate” screams the tag line to the final image in the latest Agent Provocateur campaign, in which the Kate in question – that’ll be Moss – is photographed in crimson underwear holding great slices of wedding cake in her clenched fists while scantily clad bridesmaids frolic all around.
In the background, the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, cast as a pair of screaming popes, lie defeated and deflated – literally trampled underfoot by the most famous model in fashion history.
“I like the idea of Kate standing up to all of the people who have taken a moralistic view of her,” says the label’s co-founder Joe Corre mischievously, “of her saying: ‘If you want to eat me, come on and fucking eat me.’”
Well, it must be said, Ms Moss never was one to stand on ceremony.
“Kate is an incredible person,” Corre continues, “and as everyone knows she’s also an incredible model. The media has taken such a moralistic view of her, of how they think she ought to behave. She’s been built up as a role model but she has never claimed or tried to be one.
She’s a clothes model and, anyway, what’s it got to do with them?"
In fact, the prying nature of the press where Moss’s private life is concerned is central to the irony of this tale, a fantasy narrative that charts some unlikely events around her progress to the altar.
"I guess that because we’re always talking about Kate’s private life, her boyfriends, the bridal story works really well with her," Corre suggests.
Given the nature of this particular lingerie brand, it is perhaps not surprising that a story essentially designed to promote a collection of underwear aimed specifically at brides is, well, provocative.
"The idea was really not to question the notion of marriage but the religious overtones placed on marriage," says Corre, who launched the brand with Serena Rees in 1994 with the aim of overturning the very British sense of prudery that categorises anything overtly sexual as somehow sleazy.
If the concept behind the campaign is Corre’s, equally important is the fact that, at Moss’s request, he chose to work with Nick Knight to realise it.
The photographer is the creator of some of the most iconic and indeed complex fashion imagery of our time, after all — from his early campaigns for Yohji Yamamoto to more recent projects for global brands including Christian Dior.
"Nick Knight’s approach was much more creative than that usually associated with mass marketing," Corre says.
"He worked in an artistic way, I suppose, telling a story through a set of pictures."
The images are indeed sequential, following the leading lady as she transforms from blushing bride and picture of romantic optimism to defiant, anti-establishment siren: as Corre puts it, "taking back control".
"For me, the idea of marriage, of two people committing to one another, is incredibly beautiful.
But at a certain point you hand over the control of that to a different organisation, to something that is disconnected, whether it’s the Church or, if it’s a civil wedding, the Government.
I think perhaps people should question that because what if the authority concerned is corrupt and its intentions are not as pure as the ones you had in the first place?"
Everyone knows about the corruption issues that surround the Catholic church but you’re not supposed to talk about it because it may be insulting to some people.
It’s not just the Catholic church that has incurred the iconoclastic designer’s wrath, however; he argues that he is ultimately using religious authority as "a metaphor for authority as a whole".
"I thought this was a good way of asking people to question beliefs in general," he says.
"And I don’t mean only spiritual beliefs, I mean beliefs in a financial system, in consumption which seems to me to be the main religion people follow these days."
With this in mind, Corre insists that Agent Provocateur merchandise is produced only by companies accredited by the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and that "I love everything I sell — that’s the benchmark.
As someone in business, as part of the system, what’s interesting to me is the idea of taking some kind of responsibility, the idea of raising some questions that affect everybody.
Packaging, waste, production: all of those things are important to the company."
Finally — and here it could be his mum talking — Corre says: "I think people should consume less and consume better.
- Source: Agent Provocateur’s new campaign, Independent, May 3, 2008 — Summarized for you by Trendy Lingerie
I really like much of Agent Provocateur’s lingerie and I particularly like the way they present it. When I listen to some of the things my own mother had to endure I think it is wonderful to grow up and live in a time when women are allowed to express their sensuality and sexuality in any way they see fit.
Lingerie is a wonderful way to show how you feel.