Kate Moss thought Cara Delevingne was ''so little and naive'' when they first met.

The supermodel considered Cara - who broke into the fashion world when she was just 17 - as a tiny ''chicken'' and wanted to wrap her up and place her into a wooden hutch to keep her safe when they were introduced.

Speaking to The Sunday Times newspaper in a joint interview, Kate said of Cara: ''Oh, I loved her. She's like a little ... chicken. I just wanted to take care of her. She was so little and so naive. I just wanted to put her in a little hutch.''

Cara, now 23, has always had nothing but praise for the 41-year-old catwalk legend and has claimed Kate ''saved her'' when she was diagnosed with the skin condition psoriasis by helping her reclaim control over her life and career.

She said previously: ''I had no concept of saying no to anyone, ever. After a while I got sick and got a condition called psoriasis. I felt disconnected from myself, but my agency simply shoved me into a doctor's surgery, where I got cortisone shots, but - in reality - I wanted someone to stop me, but nobody did.''

She added: ''I never felt like I was good enough, that I deserved success. I felt like I was living somebody else's dream. Kate Moss saved me - she stepped in and picked me up off the floor at a stressful time.''