The hairstylist Sam McKnight remembers working with Kate Moss, 2012

The hairstylist Sam McKnight remembers wor king with Kate Moss in 2012

Minutes after this photo was taken, Kate led a parade of supermodels into the London Olympic stadium in one of the most watched catwalk shows in history.

Admittedly, I was less than enthused when the offer first came through to represent British fashion at the Olympics closing ceremony. ‘Really?’ I thought, ‘I’m going to have to go back to London?’ I’d planned to be holidaying in Ibiza, as I do in August every year, and I would be reluctant to peel myself off the beach and hop on a flight home.

But when the day came, the air in the green room was thick with adrenalin, though nobody was nervous. Under the direction of Lucinda Chambers, the fashion director of British Vogue, we had shot an eight-page editorial with the same outfits and styling just two months prior to the ceremony. Even so, there was nothing typical about this fashion show: with 24 million people watching worldwide, every element had been planned to the nth degree and nothing could go wrong.

Earlier in the day, we’d had a private tour of the stadium accompanied by a long list of British icons – including George Michael, the Spice Girls, Annie Lennox – but in our backstage area I saw the familiar faces of old friends Naomi Campbell, Stella Tennant and Lily Cole. The pace of the fashion industry is such that it’s rare for us to spend any longer than a few hours together, but here we were locked backstage all day. It was like a family reunion.

My working relationship with Kate is almost four decades old now, and she remains one of the most professional people I’ve worked alongside. During the last few years I’ve also done shoots with her sister, Lottie, and daughter, Lila Grace, both of whom share Kate’s natural ability in front of the camera.

I remember a particular photo shoot I did with Kate in 2013. British Vogue had flown us out to St Bart’s for a swimwear story and we arrived to discover that our luggage – with all the hair and beauty products in it – had been lost in transit. We had to wing it. A splash of salt water, some basic cosmetics snatched from the local chemists and Kate’s charisma made for a spellbinding cover image. If it hadn’t been for Kate, the shoot would have been a disaster.

When I first started out as a session stylist, I accompanied Princess Diana on her legendary trip to India in 1992. One day we visited a leper colony in Nepal, and the next we were at the Taj Mahal – which had been closed for our visit. Like that day, the Olympic closing ceremony was one of those momentous life events where I was passing time in an iconic building with a handful of very special people: it was wonderful.

After the show, I felt a sense of let down, as I’d been looking forward to it for so long. Opting out of the after-parties and fully embracing the global mindset of the Olympics, I made sure I was lounging on the beach in Ibiza again by 11am the next morning. Any sadness was swiftly burnt off by the Mediterranean sun. Interview by Robbie Hodges Hair by Sam McKnight is at Somerset House, London, until March 12 (somersethouse.org.uk)

The Olympic ceremony was one of those momentous life events where I was passing time in an iconic building with a handful of very special people