Vice Style

In the 80s, Nick Knight made his name with a book called Skinheads and shot era-defining fashion editorials for i-D. In the 90s he did the same thing for Dazed & Confused, shooting amputee Aimee Mullins in high fashion for an issue edited by Alexander McQueen.

Nick helped define fashion's rising stars in both decades, which is a lot more difficult than just shooting for all the ritzy mags that also booked him. In 2000, Nick set up Showstudio, a purely online fashion enterprise, when most fashion sites consisted of little more than gossip or boring runway pictures, probably thanks to the money he was making shooting Dior campaigns. Generously, he showcased the work of yet another generation of often pretty broke fashion types, while using his access to fashion's elite to push the idea of fashion film, and fashion on the internet hard.

A lot of the funnest fashion people do just want to bum models, wear expensive shit, and happily appeal to the masses with the same fantasies. Others, maybe people like Miuccia Prada, maintain a keen interest in the world because it allows them to stay culturally relevant and shift a lot of product, but Nick Knight actively says things like "I don't want to just record social change, I want to be social change". Ambition like that is definitely visionary and you can watch our interview with him here.

PHOTOS: NICK KNIGHT
TEXT: DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI

TAGGED: Showstudio, Nick Knight