Vogue UK’s first Black Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful says he’ll always be an outsider.
“I grew up African in an African household in England,” Enninful told Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg’s From the Ground Up, a new video series meeting those who have risen to the top and exploring their journey. “Even when I took a job at British Vogue I was the Black gay working-class outsider. But I’ve been in the industry since I was 18, so I was in essence an insider.”
The challenges he’s had to overcome gave Enninful the guts to push for more diversity in an industry still focused on a narrow definition of beauty. Although he thought his first British Vogue cover featuring mixed-race model and activist Adwoa Aboah would get him fired, Enninful did it anyway.
“I wanted to create a magazine where every woman, regardless of their background, regardless of their age, could see themselves,” said Enninful, who’s since overseen a diverse cast of cover stars, from 85-year old Dame Judi Dench to medical staff at the height of the pandemic. “Now it’s the norm, but in 2017, that was a radical idea.”
Still, fashion brands have more work to do. Featuring Black models in catwalk shows or in Instagram posts is not enough. Enninful insists there’s a need for more diverse voices behind the scenes. “A variety of voices is always better than just one.”
Watch the full interview by clicking here
To contact the author of this story:
Irina Anghel in London at ianghel1@bloomberg.net
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