Talented and popular Edward Enninful, currently the creative director of W magazine, has been selected as the creative head of British Vogue, making him the first black person and man to hold the position. Enninful will replace Alexandra Shulman and will begin his role in August of this year.
Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of Condé Nast International (which owns Vogue and W) effusively described Enninful as “an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist” and noted his work while with Italian Vogue has “attained landmark status in recent cultural history.”
The Ghanian-born and London raised Enninful is widely respected in the fashion industry and has spent his whole adult life in the business, starting with a role as a model as a 16-year old. He went on to become a fashion director at i-D at the age of 18, the youngest to ever hold such a position for a global fashion magazine.
In 1998, he became a contributing editor at Italian Vogue, where he was a driving force behind the publication’s now legendary “Black Issue,” which featured only black models, including Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Alek Wek. The issue was so popular that an additional 40,000 copies were printed to meet demand. He became a contributing editor Vogue in 2006, and made the move over to W magazine five years later.
Enninful’s accolades are many and include the Clio Excellence in Commercial Styling Award in 2015, British Fashion Awards Elisabeth Blow Award for Fashion Creator in 2014, New York Urban League’s Frederick Douglass Medallion Award in 2014, among others.
Check out below a scene from “The September Issue,” a documentary on the making of Vogue‘s biggest issue that features an touching exchange between Grace Coddington and Enninful that sheds a bit of light on what makes Enniful such a well-liked figure in the fashion community.
