Sam McKnight recognised in King's New Year Honours List

Celebrated British hairdresser Sam McKnight has been awarded the MBE for services to the British fashion and beauty industries in the King's New Year Honours list.

McKnight is one of the best-known and most highly regarded hair stylists in the global fashion industry and has worked with major names from Burberry to Chanel, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

His career began in the 1970s and by the 1990s, McKnight became a household name famous for styling the hair of countless supermodels and most notably for creating a short, slicked-back look for Princess Diana's celebrated Vogue shoot with Patrick Demarchelier. He went on to become the Princess's personal hair stylist.

This year McKnight re-issued his book, Hair by Sam McKnight, detailing some of the most iconic looks of his long career and he added to his successful hair styling products range with his first hair care range. He then won backing for the Hair by Sam McKnight range from private equity house Manzanita, which also backs Space NK and Diptyque.

In a recent interview with TheIndustry.beauty, McKnight recounted the highlights of his career as: "Definitely, being around at the dawn of the supermodel era and getting to meet all those girls when they were teenagers and work with them since. 1990 first working with Princess Diana and getting to spend seven years with her. Also, getting to work with amazing people like Nick Knight, Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood. And finally, being invited to my exhibition at Somerset House [staged in 2016-2017], which was the first ever hair exhibition."

Of his latest accolade, McKnight said simply: "Delighted to accept an MBE today. Mum would have loved it."

Among those to be recognised in the fashion industry are Dame Mary Quant, Boden founder Johnnie Boden and Gymshark founder Ben Francis. Read more here.