Nepo Baby of the Week: Is Kate Moss the World’s Greatest Publicist?

It’s been a very busy few weeks for Lila Moss. In mid-January, the 21-year-old daughter of Kate Moss staged an appearance at her mother’s 50th birthday dressed up as, well, her mother. And since then, she’s also shared her pre-Fashion Month beauty routine and “cosigned” the return of skinny jeans. (And thank GOD for that; we’ve all been waiting for years, skinny jeans hanging sadly in our closets, for that specific sign-off.)

This week, however, ushered in what might be the crowning moment of Lila’s career: Somehow, she’s managed to sneak her way into British Vogue’s “Legendary!” cover alongside superstars like Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, and Victoria Beckham. Look closely, and there she is, right behind three-time Grammy winner Dua Lipa.

At the risk of being rude, how exactly do we think this happened? Maybe British Vogue’s outgoing editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, caught wind of Lila’s brave endorsement of skinny jeans and simply had to give her a call. Or, perhaps, Lila’s presence here has a little something to do with the fact that her mother is also on the cover.

In fairness, Lila Moss is no stranger to Vogue; she actually nabbed her first cover (for Vogue Italia) at the tender age of 13. It was a beautiful black-and-white portrait of Lila and her mother, but some readers were underwhelmed by the image, which didn’t strike them as quite cover-worthy. Then again, we should all be so lucky as to look that put-together in our tween years; mine, in contrast, mostly involved frizzy, orange peroxide highlights and way too much Limited Too. That said, most of us also did not have the help of a supermodel mother and a team of stylists.

Needless to say, Lila did not stop there. In 2020, she made her solo debut, once again in Vogue Italia, with a closed-eyes shot that would likely not have done too well on America’s Next Top Model. She’s since covered Vogue Japan, Vogue Hong Kong, Vogue Korea, and British Vogue once before, in 2023, with her mother in tow. She also made her runway debut with Miu Miu’s spring summer 2021 show, where she strutted her stuff in pure Y2K style.

But what can we really say about Moss’ cover shots? They’re fine, but they’re also forgettable. Her best by far was her prior British Vogue appearance, where she and her mother twinned in icy-white hats and sweaters. That’s the only occasion in which her face even approaches what Tyra Banks once called “smizing.” She’s certainly inherited some of her mother’s trademark features, like those gorgeous cheekbones, but she lacks that cocky, piercing gaze that made Mama Moss so famous. When Kate Moss stares into camera, she’s making a statement that demands we all listen; when Lila Moss tries to do the same thing, she looks more like she’s asking us all a question with her eyes. The face is stunning, but the expression seems younger and more unsure.

…Which brings us back to this “Legendary!” Vogue cover, which poses Moss next to modeling icons like Naomi Campbell. She isn’t the only modeling nepo baby on display, either; Gigi Hadid and Cindy Crawford’s daughter, Kaia Gerber, also made the cut. One could maybe make the case for Hadid as a Gen-Z icon, and yeah, Gerber has a few movies under her belt, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, would we really describe any of these young’uns as legends in the same sense as, say, Serena Williams, who is also on the cover?

Then again, maybe the internet critics crying “nepotism” are being a little too precious about this. If we’re being real with ourselves, how many human beings on this Earth are actually on par with the handful of true legends on this cover? Would anyone organically mention Oprah Winfrey in the same breath as some of her non-nepo neighbors on this cover, like Cara Delevingne or Bridgerton Season 2 star Simone Ashley? Probably not! This is a Vogue cover, not a stone-carved ledger of our most extraordinary women, and most of us sitting on our couches sneering at these photos on Reddit are likely not that much more accomplished than the next Lila Moss. She might be clinging to her mother’s coattails today, but who knows? Maybe tomorrow she’ll make like fellow cover star Miley Cyrus and prove to us all that there’s more to her than her famous last name.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.