Report by Anna-marie Solowij
“Does it all sound a bit boring?” Sam McKnight’s description of just one day of his London Fashion Week schedule could hardly be that. Stratospherically challenging, perhaps. Boring? Never.
For the Sunday of London Fashion Week, McKnight’s alarm goes off at 5am at his West London home, signalling the start of a day of back to back shows, press calls, interviews and filming plus a celebrity hair session for the BAFTAs.
There’s a down side to the glamour of this job and years of lugging heavy kit around, constant flying and standing up to do hair for shoots and shows means that staying limber and healthy is a critical part of McKnight’s routine; hell, he even manages to fit 50 lengths of the pool in at his gym between appointments on this particular day. Having started practising yoga a few years ago in Ibiza (like many in the fashion industry, McKnight spends every August on the island) he stretches for 30 minutes every morning.
Breakfast of porridge with stewed rhubarb and ginger sets him up for a day when an erratic schedule means normal meals are out of the question. Lunch of a sandwich, snatched at 6pm (“ham on white bread, which I NEVER eat, but it was completely delicious”) is fairly typical fashion week sustenance. For a man who loves to cook, working such long hours can be frustrating. “I go to the market before the shows and get a load of vegetables to make soups and stews so I’ve always got something delicious to come home to.”
At quarter to six and wearing his signature ‘uniform’ from a wardrobe of Adidas trainers, 1955 Levi 501s, Fred Perry polo shirts and Lanvin v-necks, and with a 6am call time for Clements Ribeiro, his first show of the day, McKnight drives himself to Somerset House. When I question the sanity of this he laughs: “I always like to have my escape method and route planned. There’s nothing worse than being at someone else’s mercy when you’re busy.”
Three hours later, with the hair for 12 models perfected and with his first assistant Eamon sent on ahead to start preparations for the Mulberry show, he’s back in the car, racing across to Kensington to spend the next four hours whipping up oversized bouffants. His team of 25 assistants are hard at it, attaching hair extensions and beginning the long process of backcombing.
Four hours later and with Mulberry accomplished it’s over to Uma Thurman’s London home to discuss a style for her BAFTA attendance this evening. The two met in New York, when she was 16 and had just started modelling, and have remained firm friends ever since. After snipping her hair into a bob, McKnight has to dash as he’s got another show to get to. With assistant Koji (who is in complete awe of Uma) left in attendance to complete the blow dry, McKnight dashes across town to get to Twenty8Twelve by S Miller. For this show, he’s also on call for international press as part of his ambassadorial role for Pantene Pro-V. After three hours of being in front of cameras, film crews and beauty journalists, summoning up sound bites and step-by-step instructions with slick professionalism, as well as keeping his team’s energy levels up with a steady flow of razor sharp witticisms and easy familiarity, there is no sign that the might be in the least bit tired.
But 17 hours after that 5am alarm, he’s back in the car, and desperate for bed. “I love doing the London shows, partly because that’s where home is,” McKnight says. “The comfort of my own bed and catching up on East Enders and Coronation Street on Sky Plus is a real treat for me as I’m always travelling so much.”
But winding down after such an adrenaline-fuelled day is less than easy. With a not-so-secret sideline in cake-making (McKnight‘s ‘Not a Victoria Sponge’ has been featured in Vogue and on Showstudio.com), he will often spend the rest of the evening baking. “Because it demands a different kind of concentration, somehow that calms me,” he says. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always a lengthy reading list to fall back on. “I’ve just finished The Shadow of the Wind by Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I’m working my way through Stieg Larsson’s Milllennium trilogy as well as Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I like a page-turner, with interesting characters and a good story”. Sound familiar?
