Matthew Williamson's Moss ignorance

Designer Matthew Williamson had no idea who Kate Moss was when it was suggested she walked in one of his catwalk shows back in 1997.

Matthew Williamson had no idea who Kate Moss was when it was suggested she walked in one of his catwalk shows.

The designer admits he had no clue about the supermodel when he was first starting out and drew a black when Jade Jagger said he should ask Kate to appear in one of his shows.

He said: "I said 'Kate who?' 'She said: 'Kate Moss.' I said: 'Are you, kidding?' I guess once you've got Kate it's quite easy to call up a model agency and say: 'Can we please have Helena?' "

Matthew is now celebrating 15 years in the business and although he and the label's co-founder Joseph Velosa, split up after a 10-year romance, they are still on good terms for the sake of the company.

He told the Evening Standard newspaper: "If you have lived with someone for all those years and then it ends, obviously having owned a business together adds another level of difficulty. Joseph and I split to preserve it. Rather than 'let's split up - we hate each other', it was more 'if we do this, it will potentially make it stronger'. And it did. I consider him [to be] like my brother, to be my best friend for sure, and I'm sure he does me."