Knight of nights

Nick Knight last night was the recipient of the prestigious Moët & Chandon Fashion Tribute 2006. To mark the occasion, he threw a lavish and spectacular Masked Ball at Strawberry Hill House, the gothic villa once belonging to Horace Walpole. Previous recipients of the award include Vivienne Westwood and Matthew Williamson. The event was attended by a truly A-list crowd, including Gisele Bundchen, Scarlett Johannson, Roland Mouret, Alexander McQueen, Kate Moss and Suzy Menkes. A wealth of international personalities from the world of media, photography, music and design came to celebrate Nick's successful career as one of the world's most important fashion photographers.

The party was pure fashion debauchery, with grown men fencing, a twelve piece orchestra, a modern reworking of Cinderella, karaoke (even Kate Moss got up to do a track) and regency dancing. DJ Princess Julia from London 's East End finished the evening with a set of 80s disco, that had the likes of Erin O'Connor dancing until the early hours.

In the month running up to the Nick's Moët Chandon tribute, Show Studio viewers were asked to compete for a golden ticket to the Bal Masqué by guessing each of the twelve mystery muses that posed for the image on the invitation to the ball. Working from four sets of clues on each -an abstracted portrait of each by Nick Knight, a description by the designer that proposed them, a heavily disguised clip of them talking and finally a visual anagram by Shona Heath- Ronit Yadin from London finally guessed that the muses were as follows: Kate Moss, Sara Stockbridge, Tafari, Charlotte Stockdale, Camilla Nickerson, Katy England, KT Shillingford, Asia Argento, Roland Mouret, Morgane Dubled, Gisele Bundchen and Ali Richards.

Nick Knight is possibly the most influential British fashion photographer. He has won numerous awards for his editorial work for Vogue , Dazed & Confused , i-D , The Face and Visionaire , as well as for fashion and advertising projects such as the 2004 edition of the Pirelli Calendar . Knight has also shot record covers for Elvis Costello and the Attractions , Björk , David Bowie , Kylie Minogue and Massive Attack .

Knight's first book of photographs, Skinheads, was published in 1982. He has since produced Nicknight, a twelve year retrospective, and Flora, a series of flower pictures, both published by Schirmer Mosel . Knight's work has been exhibited at such institutions as the Victoria & Albert Museum , Saatchi Gallery , the Photographers' Gallery and Hayward Gallery . He has also produced a permanent installation, Plant Power, for the Natural History Museum in London. Photos of the Bal Masqué can be seen on Vogue.com.