Kate Moss: Teenage underwear shoot revealed dangers of fashion industry

Kate Moss detailed a horror photoshoot during an interview on BBC radio. Photo / Getty Images

Supermodel Kate Moss has revealed how an underwear photoshoot at age 15 exposed the dangers of the fashion industry to her.

Speaking to the BBC's Desert Island Discs radio show, Moss says she found herself in an uncomfortable situation with a man photographing her for a bra catalogue.

She says the photographer asked her to remove her bra.

"I was only 15 probably and he said: 'Take your top off,'" Moss said.

"I took my top off, and I was really shy then about my body, and he said, 'take your bra off' and I could feel there was something wrong, so I got my stuff and I ran away."

Moss says her instincts were sharpened by that incident, adding she's been able to "tell a wrong 'un a mile away" ever since.

Moss was first signed by a modelling agency at the age of 14. Now 48, she's an agent herself with daughter Lila Moss on her books.

She told the BBC she's been able to offer all her models invaluable advice in navigating the fashion industry.

"I've said to [Lila] you don't have to do anything you don't want to do," she said.

"If you don't want to do this shoot, if you don't feel comfortable, if you don't want to model, don't do it."

Moss says she now offers advice to the models on her own books these days. Photo / Getty Images

Moss says she always ensures an agent is with one of her models when they're on a shoot, to ensure nothing inappropriate takes place.

Moss also used the BBC interview to address her recent testimony during her former partner Johnny Depp's libel trial in the US.

"I know the truth about Johnny. I know he never kicked me down the stairs. I had to say that truth."

Other topics covered in the interview included standing by designer John Galliano when he was found guilty of racist abuse in 2011, sitting for a portrait by Lucian Freud, and her current quiet life in England's Cotswolds.