Lottie Moss has made claims that she was plied with drugs by senior fashion figures in a damning indictment of the industry.
The British model, 25, who is now sober after completing rehabilitation, says she never touched drugs or alcohol before becoming a catwalk star but she was later introduced to drugs.
Speaking in-depth for the first time about her drug woes, Lottie said: ‘Iย started quite early on with using drugs and alcohol as a crutch, as a coping mechanism, which there is not a lack of in the fashion industry.
‘There were people in positions of power that were giving me drugs and alcohol when I was very young and so it didn’t seem bad to me.’
She continued: ‘When you have people around you who are enabling you, I am talking at high fashion events and people are in a penthouse suite, and its people that are working for a brand that is very well known and they’re sat there doing drugs with you as a 19-year-old.
‘That is so weird to me nowโฆ that should never happen in any industry.
‘The fact that no one said, ‘maybe we shouldn’t be enabling our client to do drugs. We should want her to be on her A game and doing her best, wake up in the morning and do a gym class, instead it was lots of alcohol’, and it goes hand in hand.’
Lottie admits her drug-taking became so regular she was using ‘five times a week,’ sparked by an unhappy relationship with an older man.
She explained: ‘I did weed and things like that when I was 15 but moving to London and being around a lot of older people, my boyfriend at the time was 27, and the people we were hanging around with did a lot of drugs.
‘I started to realise quite early on that my relationship wasn’t going very well with him and he was unfaithful, and he was also using drugs as a coping mechanism. I saw that and I instilled it into my life because it was the only time, I felt that I could be free.
‘When I was working constantly, I had to be on my A game so when I came back to London and did drugs, I was like ‘yes’ because it felt like freedom to me. It felt like my escape, but it quickly became something that I used because I was not happy.
‘I have been honest with myself back then that I was using it too much. I don’t feel that I had an addiction to itโฆ I just needed to get away. It numbed every single feeling that I had like anger, upset, loneliness, it became like my friend.’
Speaking about her relationship with her half-sister Kate Moss, 49, Lottie admits the constant comparisons were a ‘pain’, although she does concede the link did ‘open doors.’
Lottie explained: ‘I have grown up with being in the shadow of my sister always and I know there’s this whole nepo baby thing now and I want to clarify this because I’m not trying to say that it’s not a privilege.
‘I’ve obviously had doors open for me and I have had some incredible experiences and worked with some amazing people, and I’ve met some of my best friends today because of that job but it was not for me.
‘Being constantly compared to someone whether they are famous or not is a pain.
‘I have friends that have very wealthy parents that constantly feel like they’re not good enough because their parents have created this incredible business and they just feel like they’re never going to be thatโฆ they’re never going to be the owner of a multimillion-pound business, and it is hard.
‘People laugh about it and say ‘nepo baby’ or whatever but it is hard being compared to somebody and I don’t get why this is just nepotism because there are lots of rich people that this happens to as well that aren’t famous.’
