Edward Enninful has been appointed the new Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue, having succeeded Alexandra Schulman, who resigned in 2017. After having been with W Magazine for six years as style director, he took the helm of the magazine and went on to put Oprah and Rihanna on the cover. He boosted Vogue’s circulation 1.1% – no mean feat at a time when magazine sales in the UK were falling.

The Ghanaian-born stylist began his career with stylish magazine i-D as fashion director at the age of 18, the youngest to have been named as such at a major fashion title.

Aged 16 he was scouted on the train as a model then went on to work with Arena Mag and i-D before joining stylists Simon Foxton and Beth Summers on fashion shoots. He met Terry Jones, founder of i-D who then named him fashion editor after Summers left the publication.

Enninful was mostly inspired by the 80’s London club scene.

It was also during this time that he befriended many of his future fashion collaborators, including David Sims, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

Enninful’s style is infused with provocative elegance and a strong narrative, creating Vogue Italia’s July 2008 “All Black” issue featuring only black models which happened to be the magazines top-selling issue. His skills have seen him in American Vogue and Vouge Italia where he was a contributing editor.

His work at W Magazine brought relevance to the publication’s fashion editorials and managed to put his touch into some of the cover stars’ public images; even dressing Nicki Minaj as a French noblewoman. Stefano Tonchi, editor of W Magazine, has credited Enninful, in part, with growing the magazine by 16% in 2012.

Cc Risch