The Paddingtons: Model rockers in vogue

Pete Doherty's pals The Paddingtons have inspired a catwalk collection. Charlotte Cripps ashions a meeting with them

This unlikely state of affairs began in July, with an appearance at the Dior Homme spring show in Paris. There followed a performance at the glittering after-show party, at the Paris nightclub Le Triptique, watched by their "big brother" Pete Doherty and Kate Moss. "Pete introduced me to Kate at the party," recalls the bassist Lloyd Dobbs, a Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike. "'What do you think of my girlfriend,' he said? What do you think! It's Kate Moss! Pete gave me a dodgy little wink." Doherty also sang at the party.

The Paddingtons confess to having felt a long way from Hull. In fact, along with Doherty, The Paddingtons' ultra-lean look had been the inspiration for the designer of the Homme Dior collection Hedi Slimane. Rock'n'roll's favourite designer has in the past designed stage clothes for David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, and documented the emergence of the new British rock scene in his recent book of photographs London Birth of a Cult. It includes shots The Paddingtons and The Others.

Slimane telephoned The Paddingtons' lead singer, Tom Atkin, to ask him to model for the Dior Homme show. "I put down the phone because I thought somebody was taking the piss," mumbles Atkin. "I hadn't had a lot of sleep, it was quite early in the morning. I'd just got in and I was in bed."

Despite missing his chance - the band were on tour at the time - Atkin nevertheless found himself seated in the front row at the show. The rest of the band - Josh Hubbard, (guitar), Lloyd's brother Grant (drums) and Martin Hines (guitar) - were overwhelmed by the sight of Mick Jagger sitting in the front row, not to mention the flowing champagne - "complimentary bottles when you walked in!". Predictably, they all ended up "legless on Moët" and began heckling the models.

"The first model came on and he was dressed exactly like I was when I last saw Hedi Slimane," says Hubbard, who today is wearing one red shoe and one brown shoe. "It was my too-short black jeans, braces, white vest top, and trilby hat - it was like a carbon copy of me. Mind you, I'd been wearing that outfit for a whole month because I only had one pair of jeans. But the whole collection was largely based on us - and Pete - but more clean-cut. My vest top had blood on it, theirs had glitter, and it was more snazzy."

Atkin puts moodily in the corner, pulling on a cigarette. He has already received one luxury delivery from Dior Homme - "with a brown suit in it from Hedi" - and is expecting another one soon. But the band, who all dressed in Dior Homme for their "Sorry" video, admit to being "still skint". There is nothing precious about them. Atkin describes what has happened to them as "a monster getting faster and faster, and you can't put anything in a time-frame - it's when somebody asks you your age that you realise you haven't stopped to think."

Before being signed by Alan McGee's Poptones label last year, The Paddingtons, who formed in October 2001 in Hull, had "duff jobs". Lloyd will admit to working in a bingo hall, while Grant Dobbs and Atkin worked for Atkin's dad's insulation firm. The rest of their time was taken up with band practice, and driving up and down to London in a Vauxhall Nova - with tents to camp in and "eating crisps and noodle sandwiches" - and playing gigs they'd advertised on the internet. "We didn't even try to get a record deal, we just wanted to be in a band," they recall.

Then Steve Bedlow, the original singer in The Libertines, invited the gang of five to London, to play at a squat in King's Cross with Doherty. They claim not to have had an early night since, but now have four singles to their name, all of which have reached the Top 50. Their album is produced by Owen Morris, the producer of the album that kick-started Britpop, Oasis's Definitely Maybe and after being enthralled by the band at Slimane's hot party, Pet Shop Boys are keen to remix their music.

The Paddingtons' influences are English and American punk - The Clash, The Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, The Strokes, The Libertines - and their favourite band at the moment is The Cribs. Lloyd writes most of the melodies and the lyrics. "I take it to Tom first - my stuff is quite acoustic and folky - and then the band turn it into full-on punk-rock." Lloyd, who had just come out of a relationship when they signed to Poptones, has used this heartache as the subject matter for many of the songs. "50 to a Pound" is about "first love going sour" and "Sorry", the latest single, is about "closure of the relationship" ("And when you are coming down, it doesn't matter about you"). "I neglected her for other stuff," says a deeply regretful Lloyd.

Having just finished a UK tour, they are off to support The Bravery, then Doherty's Babyshambles in December. The quintet consider themselves lucky to have Doherty as a close friend. Atkin thinks that Doherty "sees himself in us" and speaks to "big brother" Pete once a week, and says that despite his problems, Doherty has helped them more than anybody else. "He takes us on tour and mentions us on TV," says Atkin. "Ever since we first met him, he has looked after us and took us under his wing," says Atkin. "When he introduced me to Kate she went: 'Ah! Are you the little Tommy...' or something like that. I said 'nice to meet you'. It was a bit weird. But she is beautiful."

"I last spoke to Pete when his tour bus got raided in Shrewsbury for drugs. We had just done three dates with them," says Lloyd.

Helping out new bands -"the cycle of rock stars" as The Paddingtons see it - is the etiquette of the new London music scene. "The thing about the scene is that we are all friends, we get on," says Atkin. This is precisely why they have no time for Liam Gallagher, who described The Paddingtons as "bloody awful". Hubbard retaliates by describing Gallagher as a "fat, toothless vocalist" who knows nothing about youth culture.

"He is a twat," says Atkin succinctly. "He is the modern equivalent of Rod Stewart, not relevant. Ten years ago he was relevant. The young can't relate to his music anymore."

'First Comes First' is out on Monday on Vertigo