Work it! Behind the catwalk with Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne - in pictures 

Dolce & Gabbana, Alta Moda, January 2013Everton fan and legendary fashion photographer Matt Lever has captured the dizzying drama behind the scenes at catwalk shows since 1999

• Behind the Runway: Backstage Access to Fashion’s Biggest Shows by Matt Lever is published by Roads

Anya Hindmarch, Autumn/Winter 2015Working for the likes of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Red, Lever shoots both the dazzling glamour and the odd ordinariness of the fashion world

Fendi, Autumn/Winter 2014He has ended up face to face with the world’s most famous models, including Cara Delevingne, pictured here in her mid-decade pomp

Anna Sui, Spring/Summer 2008Agyness Deyn does some elegant slouching in her modelling heyday, long before she started an acting career

Jean Paul Gaultier, Spring/Summer 2014Karlie Kloss walks into a dressing room. In Lever’s new book, she recounts the start of a catwalk show: ‘It’s an adrenaline rush. The anticipation. It’s a high I can’t explain… I’m addicted to it’

Peter Pilotto, Spring/Summer 2010Vogue US contributing editor André Leon Talley also gives his thoughts: ‘It’s a battlefield! There’s a different energy backstage than on the runway … There’s a focus on making sure the details are finished. Everyone’s looking for perfection … The aesthetics of backstage are just as important as the aesthetics on the runway’

Dolce & Gabbana, Alta Moda, July 2012As well as one-off jobs, Lever is the official photographer for Dolce & Gabbana’s catwalk shows, and for Elle UK

Sonia Rykiel, Spring/Summer 2010Michael Kors writes in his chapter of the book: ‘I watch the girls bring the clothes to life and I focus on how the music and the space come together to create fashion magic … being backstage before a show is the ultimate rush’

Balmain, Spring/Summer 2011Karl Lagerfeld says: ‘It’s not all about emotions. It’s like Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, the famous opera singer, said, “If people imagined I had all the emotions I can express on stage I wouldn’t sing.” In the moment, you have to stay cool. Emotions come after and I’m not so much into emotions, I’m more into work’

Gareth Pugh, Autumn/Winter 2014In the book’s introduction, Vogue’s Suzy Menkes writes: ‘Backstage is another story. It is more about invention than perfection … the best way to plant flowers in someone’s hair can suddenly seem like the most important task in the world’

Sonia Rykiel, Spring/Summer 2012‘People would find it hard to imagine how many bottles, potions and especially lipsticks are set out backstage,’ she continues. ‘Each lipstick set comes in shades from dawn pink to setting-sun red. There is no skin that cannot be matched to the array of foundations and powders’

Alexander McQueen, Spring/Summer 2013Giorgio Armani writes: ‘What happens backstage is something between warfare and theatre. Everyone has to play their part, and be smart and alert … There is a solution to everything, and sometimes a last-minute fix is the most effective’

Josh Goot, Spring/Summer 2009Christopher Bailey adds: ‘Out of that great mass of people, clothes, hair and makeup, something beautiful and exciting emerges when the collection goes down the runway. It always makes me smile when I see how it all comes together just in time – every time’