Knight's original outlook makes her almost unique on planet fashion, where black designers are rare and black Muslims rarer. “There are basically none,” she says.
But with her exotic background she's always comfortable navigating her own path.
Her father emigrated from Trinidad, her mother from Guyana, both of them converted to Islam after reaching New York, where they raised six daughters.
“The fact I'm in New York, a native New Yorker, and New York is very much about style, what's fresh, what's hot, and the fact that I come from a Caribbean culture that's very vibrant and then the fact that I'm Muslim...” Knight had to pause to catch her breath.
“I embody a lot of things,” she said.
In some Muslim countries, head-to-toe black robes, or abayas, are obligatory for women in the street, something that horrifies many Westerners.
But Knight says her experiences make her sympathetic. On a trip last year to Dubai, where one of her sisters lives, she recalls discovering the apparently uniform black fabric contains a multitude of subtle, individual differences.
“No two women were the same,” she said.
She also realized that at home, women take off their robes to reveal the latest in high fashion they'd been wearing underneath.
“They are vibrant and wear amazing colors. Only their special friends get to see them though,” Knight said. “I think it's sexy for a woman to have secrets, good secrets.” In Western society, she argues, women are not as liberated as they may think they are.
Knight gave the example of pop stars, saying men are judged largely on their singing talent, while female performers have to go an extra step.
“I think that women in this society aren't allowed just to stand on their own merit,” she said. “For most of the women who really make it, you know, they have to take their clothes off. That's the game they have to play.” In her own work, she's looking to shift the rules of the game.
“I'm telling a story that people aren't telling,” Knight said.
