“I’m thinking that she’s saying she’s showing too much skin,” Knowles says, laughing, but really it was these St. John looks.
True to form, Leon’s version of the brand is a different. “Some of the things that I’ve [put] on today are really beautiful,” says Knowles, “a bit edgier and sexy, which I think is a great refresh of the brand.”
“When I spoke to her, she was like, ‘well, if you’re there, then I know it’s going to be chic,’” Leon says when she asked Knowles to be in the campaign. “Solange was like, ‘you know, Ms. Tina, she’s the St. John girl,’” the designer recalls. “I felt like for this first campaign, it would be exciting to bring in somebody who truly loves the brand, and knows the brand and can really be an ambassador for the brand,” he says, “and there’s nobody more mega than Ms. Tina.”
Photo: Kanya Iwana / Courtesy of St. John
Knowles was one of the first celebrity stylists to become a household name, though now many—say Rachel Zoe or Law Roach—have become stars in their own right.
“I absolutely love it,” Knowles says of stylists coming to the forefront. “I respect it, because I know that as a stylist, it takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication,” she continues. “For it to be recognized like it is now, and that people are finally really getting paid and respected for fashion like any other form of art, because it is a form of art.”
She has some designers she’s been keeping an eye on. There’s Olivier Rousteing, the former Balmain creative director who is now at Rabanne and most recently dressed Beyoncé for the 2026 Met Gala, and Sarah Burton, who led McQueen for a decade before taking on Givenchy.
Knowles also has some sage words of advice for those struggling with finding their own taste: “I would tell them to figure out what makes them tick, what excites them,” she says, “because I think people having their own sense of style is just that. If you’re the cookie-cutter person that goes and buys every designer or brand and you don’t put your own personality into it, then I think, yes, you’re a good dresser, but you don’t have a great sense of style.”
