Sam McKnight Is Auctioning Off His Wardrobe

Legendary hairstylist and Vogue contributing beauty editor Sam McKnight has an extensive collection of wigs, countless styling products and innumerable grips, elastics and slides, but did you know he has a vast personal fashion archive, too?

As McKnight’s career took off in the '80s and '90s through high-profile clients including Princess Diana and Kate Moss, and collaborations with major fashion houses, his wardrobe started to grow. Vivienne Westwood made made bespoke, eye-catching creations for him, and he bolstered his collection of tailoring with pieces designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, Katherine Hamnett, Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford (who was then at the creative helm at Gucci) and Hedi Slimane (who was at Dior). “I was a happy fashion victim in the '80s and '90s and I loved it,” McKnight tells Vogue. “I am now a proud survivor.”

Accordingly, McKnight is auctioning off his much-loved leopard-print, striped, velvet and floral suits for charity. On June 18, he will host a “Passion for Fashion” sale at 249-253 Long Lane with all proceeds going to Beauty Banks, which provides hygiene and grooming products to food banks across the UK, and Cool Earth, which works to halt rainforest deforestation and its effect on climate change. A further auction will take place later in the year on October 8 2018.

“It felt like the time to let someone else enjoy them. And to recycle!” McKnight explains. “I’ve had them all packed in plastic and boxed up for 25 to 30 years. I doubt I’m ever going to fit into or wear them again and they are so beautiful and such iconic pieces.”

The pieces that will be the hardest to say goodbye to are a rose printed jacket – “it’s so now!” – and an Oxford stripe bondage suit, which had its last outing at Kate Moss’s 30th birthday extravaganza at Claridges. “Everyone loved it! So many people wanted to buy (or steal) it! I never took the jacket off the whole night.”

"I’m so lucky to have worked with some of the most creative and inspiring designers in the world, each one brilliant!" he adds. "With both charities, I know the money will go to exactly where it’s needed." Get an exclusive preview of the pieces on June 15, between 9-5pm, and June 17, between 11-4pm, before the bidding commences.