The part-time Kingston University lecturer, and author of biographies of Vivienne Westwood and the Sex Pistols, claims he received the basque from a friend of his. When pressed on what he had done with the no-doubt fashionable little number, he said "I DNA-tested it just to discover her ancestry - Scottish, apparently. Nothing more".

Eyes may roll in disbelief, but Vermerol, aged 55, isn't ashamed of admitting that's he prepared to go to any lengths to uncover the world's greatest model. He describes Kate Moss as "the ultimate celebrity." The average person might go down the births, marriages, and deaths office and start working on the family tree, but Vermorel likes a bit of controversy. He started writing his biography just before Kate's gak habit became a very open open-secret. After she fled to the US for a sabbatical, he consulted her friends and ex-boyfriends.

Vermorel says that he uncovered lots of tidbits about her that aren't widely known despite her seeming omnipresence but he claims that he was "...so restricted by lawyers that very little made it into the book." During that time, he found himself in Kate's Cotswold get-away, and noted that the model was obviously still with her buffoon comedy boyfriend, Pete Doherty, who was a musician, apparently. We should keep an eye on Fred and his plans for a follow-up biography, where hopefully he'll expand on what he did with that basque...

Image taken from dou ble you's Flickr photostream.

By Zakia Uddin