When Denise Ohnona walked the Marine Serre show at Paris fashion week, she made international headlines due to the world thinking Kate Moss was on the runway.
Earrings, necklace, Van Cleef & Arpels; Dress, Valentino. Photo: Bartek Szmigulski
Ohnona always knew she resembled the supermodel – when she was 16, people in her hometown of Liverpool would shout it at her while she walked down the road: “You look like Kate Moss!” Yet the influencer and model – whose Instagram handle is @iamnotkatemoss – never felt beautiful enough to be compared to the fashion star. She suffered from anxiety and depression and never saw the beauty other people did. “I spent so many years lost and not understanding who I was,” she recalls. The mother of two says that becoming a parent was the best thing she ever did, and it also gave her the power and strength to finally look inward to show her children a confident woman who follows her dreams.
Earrings, necklace, bracelet, ring, Bulgari; Dress, Mach & Mach. Photo: Bartek Szmigulski
“When I was 18, I was in a car accident. It completely ruined my face and I still have scars. I spent years loathing my reflection,” shares the model. It took Ohnona years to overcome the accident, which saw her undergo four reconstructive surgeries. All the while, her friend Andy Harmer, owner of Lookalikes Agency, was certain she had a career as a Kate Moss doppelganger. Ohnona explains, “I spent years putting the phone down on him, I was so sure he was making fun of me. Although I had been told I resembled Kate in the past, I just didn’t think it was even a thing, or a possibility that I had this career ahead of me.”
Earrings, necklace, Chopard; Top, Gucci. Photo: Bartek Szmigulski
Harmer persisted and approached her again for a show called Lookalikes. “I went on the show not even knowing this world existed. There were all these other doppelgangers; it was a…
