Fashion has to be fun, says Edward Enninful, but it can also bring about change. He talks to Eva Wiseman about how being gay, Black and an immigrant guide his vision
One Wednesday morning in 2020 the editor-in-chief of British Vogue was on his way to work. It was a warm day and London was quiet, that uncanny stillness as people crept awkwardly back to life – this was the first time Edward Enninful had been into the office since lockdown. He was there to finish Vogue’s September issue – . The theme was “hope”, and it featured a black and white gatefold of portraits of social justice activists, with footballer Marcus Rashford and model Adwoa Aboah sharing the cover. Enninful was excited. Hopeful, even. Over lockdown, he’d been organising virtual round tables in response to George Floyd’s murder, and having crisis discussions with Black leaders in other industries, like Oprah Winfrey and the Duchess of Sussex, as protesters marched in the street below his flat. They had talked and talked about “moving forward”. But as he approached the glass doors of Vogue House, a white security guard stopped him. “Deliveries go through the loading bay,” she shouted. Enninful had two thoughts. The first, a groan: “Not today, Satan.” The second: “I can do something about this.”
It’s just after 8am in Enninful’s kitchen, almost five years to the day since he took the editorship of British Vogue, and two since he was made Vogue’s European editorial director, part of a larger management team with Anna Wintour. Where Wintour’s dawn routine involves a game of tennis then professional hair and makeup, Enninful gets up at five to meditate. This year he turned 50 and celebrated with a wedding to his partner of 20 years, Alec Maxwell. To his left, nestled against the kitchen counter, a wedding cake the height of a modest woman is waiting to go into storage. It sits at the edge of our vision as we talk, radiating glamorous, oversized joy.
