Taking Vogue to the next level
Edward Enninful has made history as the first male to be editor in chief of British Vogue and is also the first black man to do so. Buhle Mbonambi charts the rise of fashion’s best-kept secret
EDWARD Enninful is one of the most famous names in fashion and yet few people outside of the fashion world knew who he was… until last week when he was announced as the editor-in-chief of British Vogue, replacing Alexandra Shulman in the role.
Shulman had been at the helm of the magazine since 1992. She resigned earlier this year.
Edward is arguably fashion’s best stylist and has been for the better part of a decade. He has been involved in some of the most iconic fashion editorials and brand campaigns, which have all contributed to him being regarded as one of the best in the game.
The move by Condé Nast to appoint him editor is wise. He’s loved by fashion insiders, models, photographers and, most importantly, the celebrities who magazines now depend on to sell copies off news stands.
It’s a clever move and we all expect the Ghana-born Englandraised stylist to take the magazine to another level.
A former model (he and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve Mcqueen modelled together), he quit the ramp and went behind the scenes as the fashion director of edgy fashion magazine i-d. This was at age 18. He contributed to making the magazine one of the edgiest in the industry and different from the other fashion magazines. He was one of the few black people in the 1980s and 1990s who actually had clout in the industry, and this was a sign of what was to come.
When you look at Edward’s portfolio, it’s like being allowed into the hallowed halls of a fashion exhibition. He has built up an impressive body of work, one that has seen him become the stylist of choice for many magazines, including his current magazine, W, and Italian and American Vogue. Fashion brands like Swarovski, Carolina Herrera, Lanvin, La Perla, Ulyana Sergeenko and Tiffany & Co have hired his services to style their collections and campaigns. He has worked with everyone. From the great models of the 1980s and 1990s, to the new supermodels, the Insta-models that fashion loves to celebrate. His excellence has seen him being awarded at the British Fashion Awards in 2014, where he was honoured with the Isabella Blow award for Fashion Creator, which is basically a lifetimeachievement award for services to fashion.
His edge is his biggest asset. He works with the right people at the right time, with many models, photographers, fashion brands and make up artists booking more jobs after working with him. Before he took over as fashion director at W magazine, the magazine had been suffering with competition from titles like Interview and V- Magazine. The magazine soon saw an increase in circulation and advertiser revenue, for which editor Stefano Tonchi has given credit to Edward. He has built a reputation as someone who not only shakes up mainstream fashion titles, but also makes them draw in younger readers.
Fashion’s major issue (besides anorexia and under-age models) has always been the lack of diversity on the runways, covers and pages of magazines.
He was instrumental in Vogue Italia’s “Black Issue”, which featured only black models. It’s not only racial diversity he has championed; like his British Vogue predecessor, he has also pushed for plus-size models to be accepted in the industry, even putting three of them on a 2011 cover of Vogue Italia. He was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II last year for services to diversity in fashion, which he accepted with his mother and long-time muse, Naomi Campbell.
It’s going to be an interesting time in fashion and publishing and all eyes are waiting to see which of his favourite models and celebrities (Naomi, Rihanna and Jourdan Dunn) he will have on the cover of the September issue. That’s where he will have to prove that he has what it takes to be better than Anna Wintour, Vogue Paris’s Emmanuel Alt and even Alexandra Shulman.