British Vogue has announced that Edward Enninful, who is in charge of its dual role as European editorial director of Vogue and editor-in-chief of British Vogue will leave his current position next year. Enninful will assume the position of a global advisory role at Vogue, publisher of Condé Nast’s flagship title. In conjunction with this change, British Vogue will hire a new “head of editorial content,” according to the company.
Enninful said about his new position, “contribute to the creative and cultural success of the Vogue brand globally while having the freedom to take on broader creative projects,” in a memo to staff.
Enninful was born in Ghana in 1972. He entered the world of fashion magazines in 1991 with the British style bible “i-D” and became the industry’s youngest fashion director at just 18 years old. He then became the style director of W magazine.
Known for his challenging and sophisticated image, Enninful has been also a close friend of Naomi Campbell and has developed strong relationships of trust with Campbell and other top fashion models. Enninful ran a feature in Vogue Italia’s 2008 issue that showcased and celebrated black models and black women in the worlds of art, politics, and entertainment and fought for a more diverse fashion media. The issue, dubbed “The Black Issue,” sold out within 72 hours in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was so popular that an additional 30,000 copies were printed in the U.S. and 30,000 in Europe.
In recognition of those efforts, Enninful was named “Fashion Creator of the Year” by the British Fashion Council (BFC) in 2014. He was also awarded an OBE for his services to diversity in the fashion industry in 2016.
Enninful then became editor-in-chief of British Vogue in August 2017, making his mark on fashion history by becoming the first man, and first Black editor, to hold the title of editor-in-chief in Vogue’s history.
In recent years, Condé Nast has been streamlining and cutting costs by eliminating country editor positions at Vogue’s international editions, but Enninful was the only one to retain his position as editor-in-chief. (Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director, was an exception.)
However, over the past few years, the top stylists and fashion editors who had worked for the company have left, and in their place have been replaced by younger, web-savvy editors who now report to Enninful. Enninful’s decision to leave his position as editor-in-chief and contribute to Condé Nast in his new position appears to have been made in order to streamline editorial operations and harmonize content strategies for each edition.