Nick Knight on Failure as Part of Success and the Influence of Marc Ascoli and Peter Saville | FN

Summary of the subtitles (Nick Knight interview)

Daily uniform & style (with emotional meaning)

• He wears a nearly identical outfit every day, varying mainly by whether he’s shooting.
• In public:
  • White single-breasted suit (or a similar classic style)
  • Black trousers/trickers and black brogue trickers
  • White shirt only in public (he owns other colors privately).
• His shirts are from Frank Foster (a British shirtmaker).
• Why Frank Foster matters to him emotionally:
  • Foster (Frank Foster / Lionel) fled to Britain from Eastern Europe after problems for Jewish people.
  • Foster was a street fighter and later became a shirtmaker, eventually supplying many 1960s–70s stars.
  • Nick keeps reminders of Foster and his family close (photos by his bed), tying the shirt to personal history.

What to wear when photographing

• When shooting, he avoids a “severe” suit because it ruins easily when he bends/lies on studio floors.
• He switches to:
  • Levi’s 505 “nothing jeans” (not tapered/flared/bootleg)
  • Broes (boots/shoes of that style)
  • White shirt
• He doesn’t always wear socks, but recently started wearing black socks.

Fashion photography mindset: seek people and the “unknown”

• He’s drawn to what feels “unusual,” but frames it as fascination with society and people, not a drive for shock.
• Working with very different artists/designers (e.g., Alexander McQueen, others) fuels the creative thrill—entering someone else’s mind/vision.

Childhood → lifelong fashion obsession

• Early inspiration:
  • At kindergarten, he remembers being captivated by girls’ dresses and feeling excited by fashion.
• Countries shaping his style:
  • In France (from 1966) and then Brussels (after NATO left France in 1967), he became obsessed with wanting a black shiny “wet look” shirt around age 7–8.
  • Moving back to provincial England (~1970) created a fashion culture shock.
• School experience pushing nonconformity:
  • A very unflattering neon/“astroturf” green uniform blazer made him feel “desexualized” and like he didn’t fit.
• Limited access → customization:
  • Since shops were limited (often only uniform/Army Navy store), clothes had to be customized/dyed/cut.
  • He remembers shared/prized boots being passed around and glam-rock looks being pieced together.

Art that “made sense”

• A key first art fixation: Carl Andre’s “bricks” at the Tate.
• He was also intrigued by provocative/absurd performance-art-like ideas, mentioning images/stories involving artists such as Vito Acconci and Marina Abramović.

Why fashion is a serious art form

• He argues fashion should be taken seriously because it’s a powerful form of self-expression, and people’s presentation is rarely truly “random.”
• He ties his view of fashion to contrasting parenting:
  • Father: restrained, subtle, military/office-toned sensibilities.
  • Mother: changed clothes many times daily and deeply enjoyed fashion.

Career path (education)

• He initially tried to qualify for medicine:
  • Including one year of human biology with a plan to switch to med school.
  • He didn’t do well due to missing lectures.
• He then moved toward photography, eventually becoming a fashion photographer (not a doctor/psychiatrist).

Mentorship by hard-driving creatives

• In the 80s, he worked under Marc Ascoli (spelled in subtitles as “Mark Ascaly/Ascoli”).
• He collaborated with art direction figures including:
  • Peter Savile
  • (He also mentions Simon Foxton earlier.)
• Mentorship style:
  • Very long discussions about shows before shooting.
  • Ascoli closely checked his work (via the Hasselblad viewfinder / later other setups) and sometimes offered minimal feedback—often leaving him “crushed.”
  • He describes the process as tearing yourself apart to get a great image:
    • Shoots could run late (3–4 a.m.) then restart early (9 a.m.).
  • When he left that team, he found it hard to replace the constant pressure that pushed him to improve.

Fashion film: how Show Studio approached the medium

• He helped build Show Studio, aiming to showcase fashion’s creative process, especially fashion film (starting around 2000).
• His view of what fashion film should be:
  • Not necessarily a full narrative story.
  • Like fashion photography: a “moment” in movement, with a few frames before/after.
  • Sound is crucial for emotion and depth.
• Platform evolution changed pacing and duration:
  • Early internet/live streaming
  • Instagram (15 seconds → later longer)
  • TikTok (different pacing)
  • YouTube (longer formats)
• “Sleep” live-stream project:
  • They live-streamed a single webcam frame per minute from a hotel room floor (Metropolitan provided the space).
  • Models were styled, then put to sleep.
  • Small real happenings (e.g., wig coming off, someone waking early and writing in lipstick) created compelling “fragments.”
  • Low-tech visuals (cheap webcams) produced a painterly/cracked-by-life feel.
  • He avoided creepy/sexual “clichéd” portrayals, and felt the result was beautiful rather than exploitative.
• Philosophy on failure and craft:
  • In his work, the first shot is usually bad.
  • He expects humbling failure to force deeper searching and seeing beyond what’s directly visible.

Failure as a creative engine

• Core process idea:
  • Begin with failure (lighting, hair, makeup, styling—or his own choices).
  • Use that failure to go deeper and find the spark/glimmer, searching until the image feels right.
• Collaboration matters:
  • Great outcomes require a whole team (hair, makeup, styling, art direction, etc.).
  • He stresses chemistry and how bodies/skin/smell/texture affect the overall image-making experience.

Notable collaboration and extreme concepts

• He recalls Lee McQueen proposing extremely radical visual ideas (he mentions raw sewage), then improvising to more feasible analogs:
  • e.g., sump oil, then later molasses.
• The molasses idea:
  • A pool was set up so the model would sink into it.
  • The final result wasn’t as visually successful as hoped, though the process was dramatic.
  • A “clipping plane” effect—when the model went too deep—prevented the intended look.

Model selection: find beauty and interest, not just “perfect looks”

• He looks for beauty in people, broadly defined (texture, movement, voice, presence—human qualities beyond conventional “prettiness”).
• Key values:
  • Caring about the person and the clothes/designer.
  • He’d rather work with designers he truly admires.
  • He’s fascinated by opposites and cultural variety in beauty standards, including discussing prejudice/laziness shaping opinions (he mentions reactions to Kim Kardashian’s body shape).

Sculpture/3D scanning as an extension of his art

• He explores 3D scans and printed sculptures of people.
• He’s interested in sensory materials (e.g., sculpting with substances like soap).
• He compares museum restrictions (no touching) with sculpture’s tactile tradition.

Health/mental wellbeing section (ad snippet)

• The video includes a BetterHelp sponsored segment:
  • Feeling overwhelmed can be reframed as having more “things to do” rather than being overwhelmed.
  • It promotes online access to therapists.
  • It includes a callout for 10% off the first month.

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Notable locations, products, and speakers mentioned

People / Speakers

• Nick Knight; Marc Ascoli; Peter Savile; Lee McQueen; Alexander McQueen; John Galliano; Yohji Yamamoto
• Devin (Devon) Aoki; Bjork; Lady/Liberty (Liberty Ross); Ruth Hogman
• Charlotte (his wife); Dylan Jones; Paul Rutherford; William Forner; Rick Rubin
• Kanye West; Johnny (Godard mentioned); Jean-Luc Godard

Locations

• Palmau (Nick’s meeting place with Frank Foster)
• East End London
• France (1966); Brussels (post-1967)
• Brussels/London move back to between Huntington and Cambridge
• Petisham (London area); Huntingdon
• Tate (Carl Andre’s “bricks”)
• Paris; Cork Lou / Louvre square area (described as Paris show location)
• South Bank / Louisiana; Venice / Florence (McQueen-related reference)
• Barb (Arabic quarter of Paris)

Products / Brands / Design references

• Frank Foster shirts
• Levi’s 505
• “black wet look” shirts
• Dr. Martens boots (silver painted; “eight holes”)
• Aston Martin (Frank Foster)
• Hasselblad (camera / viewfinder)
• Show Studio
• BetterHelp (sponsor)