01 / Career record
Early life
Samuel McKnight was born on 13 May 1955 in New Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, to a miner and a mother who worked at the local Co-op. Before hairdressing, he held a string of other jobs — window cleaner, van driver, trainee teacher — and worked as a local salon assistant before moving to London in the early 1970s.
02 / Career record
Building a session career
In London, McKnight found work at the Molton Brown salon and completed his first editorial shoot for British Vogue in 1977, launching his career as an independent "session stylist" specialising in editorial work. He spent part of the early 1980s in New York expanding his client base, and by the 1990s was working regularly with Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
03 / Career record
Princess Diana and a defining decade
In 1990, McKnight created the short, slicked-back cut Princess Diana wore for a Vogue shoot, becoming her personal hairstylist for the following seven years — one of the most recognisable hair transformations of the era. The same decade brought Madonna’s Bedtime Stories album cover in 1994, and McKnight went on to style Lady Gaga for Born This Way in 2011.
04 / Career record
Recognition
Across his career McKnight has contributed to more than 190 Vogue covers internationally and worked with houses including Chanel, Fendi, Balmain and Burberry. In November 2016, Somerset House staged a retrospective covering four decades of his work, and he has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Scottish Fashion Awards and the Creative Head Awards. He was appointed MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the fashion and beauty industries.
05 / At a glance
Quick facts.
- —First editorial shoot for British Vogue, 1977
- —Personal hairstylist to Princess Diana for seven years, creating her iconic 1990 slicked-back cut
- —Styled Madonna for the Bedtime Stories album cover, 1994, and Lady Gaga for Born This Way, 2011
- —More than 190 Vogue cover credits across international editions
- —Subject of a retrospective exhibition at Somerset House, November 2016
- —Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire, 2023, for services to fashion and beauty