Knight of the Order of the British Empire, London-based hairdresser and stylist Sam McKnight has been shaping hairstyle trends in the global fashion industry for over 50 years.
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Sam McKnight turned 70 last year. Of that, he has dedicated half a century to the high art of hairdressing. Even those who have never heard of the British master are certainly familiar with his works. One of them is the famous haircut of Lady Diana, which he did in 1990: a graphic pixie that revealed a high forehead.
They met at a photo shoot by Patrick Demarchelier for British Vogue, when the Princess of Wales asked Sam for advice on her image. The short haircut showed the world a different Diana – free, bold, sexy – and marked a new era in her life. The princess later admitted that Sam’s work helped her gain self-confidence. Their collaboration lasted seven years.
McKnight zooms in from his studio in North Kensington, west London. Along the walls are dozens of wigs of every shape and shade, from snow-white ponytails to lush Sicilian orange locks. Some were created for Madonna and Lady Gaga while working on their album covers, others for the runways of Dior, Tom Ford and Fendi. A special place in the collection is occupied by wigs born in collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld during his tenure at Chanel from 1983 to 2019. The styles McKnight creates change conventional ideas about beauty and become markers of an era.
Composed, well-groomed, in a gray sweater, Sam carries himself modestly and professionally. When I ask how to introduce him to the Ukrainian Vogue audience, he simply answers: “Hairdresser.” “Not a hair god?” I clarify just in case. “God forbid,” he smiles.
In 2016, one of London's main art hubs, Somerset House, dedicated a solo exhibition to him. “While preparing the exhibition and the book of the same name (the album Hair by Sam McKnight was published by the Italian publishing house Rizzoli in the same year. – Ed. note), we looked through 40 thousand photos,” recalls Sam. “At that time, my portfolio already had over 200 Vogue covers.” “Name the most memorable one?” I can't help but ask the Jesuit question. “All with Diana. About thirty with Kate Moss. The issue with Judi Dench – in June 2020 she became the most adult heroine of the Vogue cover. It's hard to choose one.”
It's no surprise. McKnight has worked with some of the world's most talented photographers: Tim Walker, Nick Knight, David Sims, Craig McDean, Solve Sundsbo, the list goes on. “It's important to surround yourself with people you respect and find common ground,” he concludes.
McKnight loves his life's work, but he treats it like a craft. “I just show up and do the job,” he says when I ask what it's like to realize that his hairstyles have defined decades.
He grew up in Scotland, in the mining village of New Cumnock. “I saw how much and how hard my parents worked, and from an early age I got used to relying primarily on myself.” He began to earn money as a teenager. He entered a teacher training college, but the prospect of teaching did not appeal at all. In search of income, the 19-year-old McKnight got a job in his friends' beauty salon. He was hooked – and five years later he moved to London.
In the 1970s, the British capital was awash with androgynous David Bowie and Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry (who still inspire Sam). The young McKnight found himself at the Molton Brown salon in posh Mayfair, where fashion editors would drop in for a quick fix. The diligent and conscientious McKnight was quickly spotted – and sent to shoot for Vogue. “I was a complete novice at the time, but I loved the process,” recalls Sam. He was invited back – and soon he was spending more time on set than in the salon. The first cover of British Vogue in his portfolio appeared in February 1984 – it was shot by Demarchelier.
It was then that McKnight actually invented a new profession – session stylist, photo shoot stylist. The most beautiful women in the world have visited his chair, including Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell. To this day, McKnight does not accept private clients – to get his hands on him, you need to be a model or a star of the first magnitude. He lives on the road, trying to fit numerous stylers, combs and products of his own brand Hair by Sam McKnight, which he founded in 2017, into bottomless Rimowa suitcases.
He works a lot: behind the scenes at fashion shows for Dries Van Noten, Balmain and Vivienne Westwood, preparing big stars for shoots – from Tilda Swinton to Cate Blanchett. Some of them have been with him for decades, like Kate Moss, whom he knew as a teenager.
Despite his space career, Sam seems simple and down-to-earth. On his Instagram account, where he has a quarter of a million followers, he posts selfies in wigs, behind-the-scenes shots of fashion shoots, and photos of daffodils, peonies, alliums, and dahlias from his home garden. He still sees his childhood friends and half-jokingly admits that his parents didn't understand what he was doing, but were proud of him: “Especially when I bought them a house.”
We're talking about the tectonic shifts in the beauty industry over the past half century. McKnight says philosophically: “In the 1970s, beauty was very 'American', and the shows were intimate, with 50 people in attendance and no photographers. The 1980s brought the era of supermodels – and that changed the business. By the end of the decade, there were hundreds of people, television, and the press crowding backstage. The 1990s saw the digital transformation, and a decade later the era of social media. The internet changed everything beyond recognition.” However, in the new landscape, Sir McKnight feels like a fish in water: “I remain myself. Because I can't be anyone else.”
