SPOTLIGHT: Sam McKnight

Sam McKnight as according to his biography “is one of the most accomplished and well-respected hair stylists of his generation”. Sam has been credited as the original ‘session stylist’ and wherever you look with the industry, whether it be magazines, catwalks or the red carpet, you are bound to find Sam’s work somewhere.

Sam has built up an extensive list of clients that he collaborates with including fashion houses such as Chanel, Fendi, Balmain, and Dior; magazines such as Vogue and i-D or celebrities and royalty from the likes of Lady Gaga to Princess Diana.

Having fallen into hairdressing by accident, Sam clearly has a true natural ability. After leaving teacher training college in Scotland and moving down to London to retrain as a hair stylist it was at Molton Brown that Sam’s love for high fashion really kicked in. The owners Caroline and Michael Collis introduced him to the world of Karl Lagerfeld, Armani and Calvin Klein and the rest was history.

Sam’s career grew traction during the ‘time of the supermodel’ working with fashion stylists such as Carine Roitfeld and Katy England and photographers such as Patrick Demarchelier who later introduced Sam to Princess Diana.

One of my favouite shoots by Sam was when he styled Princess Diana’s hair for a shoot with Patrick Demarchelier in 1990. Makeup artist, Mary Greenwell done makeup and Anna Harvey styled. Photographs of that shoot can be seen everywhere and it is truly iconic.

Sam is a true artist and has an amazing creative eye when it comes to hair stylist. Yet he is also humble giving advice to budding creatives within the industry…

“You have to keep ahead of it all and you have to stay relevant and keep on reinventing yourself a bit. But the really huge part of it all is plain hard work. A bit of it is talent, but the rest is hard graft. There is no shortcut. Some people think they can get straight to the top, but unless they’re prepared to work hard they won’t stay there. I also think it’s really important to push yourself out of your comfort zone and not be averse to trying new things.”

References all viewed on day of post:

http://www.sammcknight.com/biography/

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http://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/sam-mcknight

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http://www.getthegloss.com/article/behind-the-brand-sam-mcknight

(December 6th 2012 / Susannah Taylor)