Andrew Bolton
Curator in Charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
A graduate of anthropology from the University of East Anglia, Andrew then spent 10 years at the Victoria & Albert museum in London where he created exhibitions including ‘Fashion in Motion’ and ‘Men in Skirts’.
As curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute since 2006, Andrew is recognised for having spearheaded some of the most groundbreaking and innovative fashion exhibitions in the museum’s history. His 2011 ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ retrospective was phenomenally successful.
Andrew has been awarded the ‘Best Design Show’ award by the International Association of Art Critics for an exhibition on couturier Paul Poiret. In 2009, he was awarded with the AIGA Design Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award for ‘Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy’ catalogue.
Tim Blanks
Editor-in-Chief, Business of Fashion
Formerly the host of the CBC’s globally syndicated television show Fashion File, and presenter of Masters of Style, a documentary series covering designers from Valentino to McQueen, Tim Blanks has been covering fashion around the world since 1985.
Tim was editor-at-large at Style.com from 2006, reviewing and filming collections – womenswear, menswear and haute couture – in the world’s fashion capitals, until his move to Business of Fashion in 2015. Tim also regularly writes on fashion and entertainment for a number of international magazines and newspapers, including Vogue, LOVE, Interview, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is renowned for his intellectual reviews pitted with historical and contemporary cultural references.
Naomi Campbell
Model, philanthropist and founder of Fashion for Relief
One of the five original supermodels, Naomi was born in London and caught her break when she was 15 years old. She was the first black model to appear on the cover of TIME magazine, French Vogue and Russian Vogue. She was also the first black British model to appear on the cover of British Vogue. Over the course of her career she has graced the covers of more than 500 magazines.
In 2005, she established Fashion for Relief and hosted its first charity fashion show to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Since its conception in 2005, Fashion for Relief has presented shows around the globe and has raised millions of dollars for various causes.
In 2007 Naomi was named as an ambassador of Rio de Janeiro by the mayor in recognition of her charitable work to help fight poverty in Brazil. She also joined forces with Marc Jacobs in 2009 to raise money for the charity The White Ribbon Alliance, for which she is a global ambassador.
Nick Knight OBE
Photographer and founder of SHOWstudio
Nick Knight is among the world’s most influential and visionary photographers. He is also the founder and director of award-winning fashion website SHOWstudio.com.
As a fashion photographer, he has consistently challenged conventional notions of beauty and is fêted for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with leading designers including Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen as well as advertising campaigns for the likes of Dior and Tom Ford among many others.
He has directed award winning music videos for Björk , Lady Gaga and Kanye West. Nick's long-standing commitment to experimenting with the latest technologies led to the launch of his fashion website SHOWstudio in 2000, with the aim of championing the new medium of Fashion Film and also ‘showing the entire creative process from conception to completion.’
Shaun Leane
Jeweller, proprietor of The House of Shaun Leane
At the age of 16, Shaun Leane began his career training as a Goldsmith in London’s jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden. During this time, he restored some of the world’s most precious antique jewellery and mastered the skills needed to create pieces of fine delicacy. He set up his own company in 1999, marrying the creativity and technical expertise gained from his traditional training and catwalk collaborations.
Shaun has received the UK Jewellery Designer of the Year Award four times and, in 2006 was granted Freemanship of the City of London for his contribution to the UK jewellery industry. Shaun is now a visiting professor at the University of the Arts London.
Shaun and Lee met at the beginning of their careers and found themselves united by a shared passion for craftsmanship. A decade of collaboration followed, resulting in some of the most influential catwalk imagery ever.
Sam Taylor-Johnson OBE
Artist and filmmaker
Born in Croydon, Sam graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in 1990. Her first solo exhibition was at The Showroom in 1994, and she was the youngest artist ever to be granted a solo exhibition at The Hayward Gallery for a major retrospective of her work.
Her photography and film work has won much international critical acclaim, including the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale (1997) and a Turner Prize nomination (1998). In 2008 she directed her first short film drama, the punk rock era-set Love You More. Sam also won praise for her feature film debut, the Bafta-nominated Nowhere Boy in 2009, based on the story of the early life of John Lennon. Following a 3-year break, in which she married and focused on her family, Taylor-Johnson completed a book and exhibition at The Saatchi Gallery, produced her notorious directorial feature Fifty Shades of Grey and, most recently, directed A Million Little Pieces, a British drama film.
Sam and Lee enjoyed much collaboration, including her 2003 portrait of Lee and a centrefold for AnOther inspired by the Brothers Grimm. Lee also credited Sam’s ‘Still Life’ with influencing his S/S 2007 collection ‘Sarabande’.