Kate Moss is happier than she's ever been in her life and is keen to dispel some of the misconceptions people have about her. As she reveals her softer side in an exclusive interview with Brendan O'Connor, they talk about creativity, how life becomes easier as you go along, and the importance of underwear

I like Kate Moss. She's kind of flirty and kind of flinty. And she's not too nice, in that way that people are in her industry, when in fact they are not being nice at all. She's just fairly normal, and quite cool, and quite real. Then again it could be all an act. But I don't think it is. Because you get the impression Kate Moss couldn't be bothered with an act. She's Kate Moss.

But she's good at this, too. When I come in she tells me she's heard about me from her friend, the hairdresser James Brown, who is from Ireland. When I ask her what he said, she gets vague. So, I am flattered that Kate Moss is aware of me, but I am defensive because I don't know what she has been told about me, and I want to make her like me, to redeem myself. It's a good place to have someone at the start of an interview.

The interview is a funny one. We are here to talk about Kate's new perfume, Vintage. And because this is Kate Moss, who doesn't ever talk or give interviews, we have had to agree a number of questions in advance. I sent off lots of questions, mainly about beauty and perfume, and they approved them and now I will sit here and ask them of Kate.

Why did we agree to this? Well, because it's Kate Moss. She doesn't talk much, so when she does, we'll accept a few limitations. And then, of course, the hope would be that once we let the dog see the rabbit, so to speak, things might relax a bit. The idea would be that I overwhelm her with my charm and we end up having a bit of banter and going beyond the scope of the agreed questions. This, of course, is what happens. And it's as much down to her as me. Frankly, she becomes more animated and engaged and energised every time we go off-message and I suspect that if it wasn't for the presence of Steve Mormoris, vice president of Global Marketing for Coty, who sits protectively right next to Kate-- like, actually on the same couch as her -- I think we would have ended up having a few drinks and a longer chat. Kate has a drink in her hand when she comes in to the room -- a glass of champagne. But, as far as I can recall, she didn't really drink from it while we were talking. You could take this as somewhat of a metaphor. Kate Moss's reputation as a party girl, her 'edge', sells perfume, and other products. But companies don't want too much edge. So the champagne is there but she doesn't drink from it.

To be polite, we talk about perfume for a while. I have to say the perfume is nice. And by that, I don't mean that they are making me say it. I mean I have to say it because it's true. It's a little bit cooler and less overwhelmingly flowery than some other personality-driven perfumes. It comes in a very cool bottle and the whole package is very Kate Moss. It's the Rolling Stones in the Sixties meets Ladbroke Grove punk meets Wicklow trustafarian. It's an afghan coat and butterflies and a glass of champagne.

I smirk as I start asking the perfume questions. She vaguely smirks back a bit, in between looking at me like I am idiot. Like, why did she call her perfume Vintage? "Because I like old things."

In fairness, she elaborates. "I like old bottles. I like old scents, old clothes, old jewellery, vintage things that have stories." And I believe her. Because, like I say, I don't think she can be bothered having too much guile or lying or making stuff up. She's Kate Moss and in a way she doesn't give a damn. And maybe that's why they feel the need to protect her, because who knows what she might say?

But let's rewind for a minute, to what you really want to know. Does she suck all of the air out the room when she walks in? Not really. It's not as surreal as when Johnny Depp walks into a room, or Angelina, or even Posh or Bono. It's more normal than that. Somehow, even though she is all of a sudden this icon made real, it doesn't feel surreal sitting down across the coffee table from her in a bedroom in Claridge's in London. She is a slightly challenging presence, but she is not intimidating.

What's her voice like? It's dry and sort of cigarette-stained and again, kind of Ladbroke Grove punk. It's not common, but she doesn't 'speak proper' either.

She doesn't seem excessively tiny and she doesn't look painfully thin. It may surprise you to hear that she's a sturdy little thing. She's wearing tight, grey jeans and a diaphanous Ossie Clark top. When I ask her to tell me what she's wearing, because this is what the girls in the office will ask me, she goes through it all and, rather endearingly, she takes off her Rupert Sanderson shoes to check the label. She doesn't have a stylist to buy her clothes or prepare her for these things. She doesn't take Polaroids of herself to check how it will look. She's heard people do that and she thinks that's "really weird and strange". She likes the shirt because it's "quite chiffon-y and tarty". She says that you've got to feel comfortable with what you wear "because, if you don't you feel you've got camouflage on".

And was she incredibly sexy? I didn't think she was incredibly sexy, but she is very attractive. But her attractiveness comes as much from her personality, manner and her attitude as from anything else. She is undoubtedly very pretty -- those big cat eyes and that feline face. And she doesn't, despite what you may have read, look at all ravaged or wrinkled. And she doesn't seem to be wearing too much make-up. Or maybe she's just very cleverly made-up.

But, mainly, what is attractive about her is her confidence and poise. This is someone who is happy in her skin. Indeed, she says that her greatest beauty tip is to be happy. And is she happy these days? "It goes up and down with me," she says. But then she thinks about it for a second and she says: "I think I've just grown up. It's hard to be in the spotlight all the time and people always saying things or talking. It's hard to be comfortable, sometimes. But now I feel like, you know, you do get used to it, and I'm happy -- with my boyfriend and my family and my country house; I've got a life of my own as well as that other life, so it's a good balance that I've actually managed to maintain. But it's taken a while." I say that things get easier in your 30s. "Exactly. You don't question things so much," she says.

And Kate Moss's increasing creativity, in terms of her fashion designing and now her perfume, are probably part and parcel of her new fulfilment. She stresses that she still likes modelling. She still likes, some days, not to have any input and, "just people creating and being a different character because then it's not all you and it's nice to just let it all go and they have the freedom. It's fun. I still enjoy that." Despite the fact that she is now Kate Moss, she's still just a model when she goes on shoots. "You're not just a little girl sitting on a chair any more," she says, "and I do have opinions about what I like and what I don't, but on shoots when I go on as a model, I don't say: 'Oh, I don't like the make-up,' or, 'This is not how I'd wear it,' because then you're not a model any more."

More than any of the supermodels, Kate was always the one who said she was "just a model". She never gave interviews, she promised she would never write a book; she didn't try to save the world. "I'm still not going to write a book," she assures me, laughing at the very idea of it.

But she has made a perfume, and it genuinely seems like she's proud of it and like she's put a lot of her real self into it. From talking to the people who collaborated with her on the perfume, you get the impression that Kate's house had a lot to do with it. Kate says this, too. She describes the creative process of making the perfume as similar to her clothes-designing process. "I go through things that I like and then I get together with them and we collaborate to make it, so it's always a collaboration of what I've already got in my house. You know, I have colours I like, jewellery or something, or a dress that I love, so it's always a twist on something I already have or would wear."

The perfume, she says, reflects the softer side of her personality. "There is a soft side," she says. "You know, it's not the party side. It's a more grown-up, classy side that I've learned through being around kind of vintage pieces and things like that."

I say to her that people might be surprised at this soft side, given the perception of her as a tough cookie. "People portray you as that and sometimes I can be," she says. "But I think it's all sides of me. You know, the personality that you have to be in your work and your life, sometimes."

Do people have a lot of misconceptions about her?

"Yes. Not when they meet me, I don't think so. But they portray you as . . . I think they probably think you're this or that . . . but this is much more me than what they portray me as."

I ask her about a story in the papers, a day or two before, saying she has registered with the performing rights people as a songwriter in order to be able to collect royalties. It has been taken as an indication that Kate Moss might be planning to do more music in the future. It's an old story, she tells me. She had to register so she could collect royalties on the various bits and pieces she's done with musician friends and boyfriends. So, she's not working on music with her boyfriend Jamie Hince of The Kills?

"Not right now," she says.

She seems genuinely pleased when I tell her that I really like Some Velvet Morning, the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra song she recorded with Primal Scream. Would she ever think of doing a Kate album -- helped out by various musician friends?

Absolutely not. Though she and her boyfriend do have a PA system and drums and guitars set up in her country house and they mess around with music at home. But no more than she will be writing a book, she will not be making an album. Unlike many of her fellow celebs, Kate Moss seems to have quite a realistic concept of herself and her talents and the world.

I would be wrong not to ask her about her beauty and style tips. She says her main beauty secret is that she sometimes sticks her head in a bucket of ice. I kind of laugh but she's not joking. A bucket of ice with cucumbers in it works wonders, apparently. As to wardrobe staples, she says everyone should have: "Good jeans that fit properly, a good blazer, a good black dress, high shoes . . . I don't know."

"Underwear?" Steve Mormoris helpfully prompts her.

"Yes, underwear," she says. "How did you know that?"

"I've been around," he deadpans back.

"Oh, yes. And a handbag. And you could get away with that," she reckons. "Quality over quantity."

And then she says she's going out to the balcony for a smoke, which I think means we're finished. As she leaves, she says I should wear the perfume. "My boyfriend does," she says. I tell her I mainly wear Chanel's Bel Respiro, which is pretty much a woman's scent, so I feel I'm man enough to be able to wear her fragrance.

"Course you are, dear," she laughs over her shoulder.

- Brendan O'Connor

Sunday Independent