My personal style signifier is a white Oxford shirt by British shirtmaker Frank Foster. I’ve been wearing them every single day since the 1980s, each bespoke with a high stand collar and a pleat down the back. I must have 200 or so. For my private life, I have a set of coloured ones in a symphony of pinks and blues. Frank Foster is sadly no longer with us but his widow and daughter carried on the business; they have a little place on Pall Mall. I style them with some beautiful Murano-glass cufflinks that came from my friend Carlo Brandelli when he was at Kilgour. They’re carved in the shape of roses.
A home-grown rose and his collection of Murano-glass cufflinks © Nick Knight
The last thing I bought and loved was an image of a lily by Brâncuși. I like to collect photographs that relate to each other, and I’m currently trying to put together a series on flowers. Brâncuși was taught photography by two of the 20th century’s greats – Man Ray and Steichen. I’ve started to collect pictures by all three but it’s an expensive pastime. The purchase before this was a Man Ray image of a magnolia that he sent to Imogen Cunningham in California, who also photographed magnolias. He wrote a letter to her on the back.
