Edward Enninful: British-Ghanaian fashion editor; first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue, former fashion director at i-D, Italian Vogue and American Vogue, author of 'A Visible Man'.
What this episode covers
Edward Enninful traces his journey from a military base in Takoradi, Ghana, to fleeing a coup for London, where he faced racism, poverty and a terrifying father. Discovered on a train at 16 and made fashion director of i-D at 18, he describes a fast ascent driven by fear, workaholism and a lifelong sense of being an impostor. He opens up about drinking, drugs, getting sober for 14 years, and a health crisis of detached retinas and tinnitus that forced him to slow down. He explains how he reinvented British Vogue around inclusivity, proving diversity sells, while honoring his late mother who gave him his love of fashion and people.
The guest's own work
A Visible Man
Edward Enninful
“I recommend everyone to go and check out this incredible book A Visible Man because it needs to be a visible book”— Edward Enninful
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Ebony
Johnson Publishing Company
“there was a magazine called ebony which is an American magazine that you'd get every month”— Edward Enninful
Big reveals from this episode
- Enninful says his father told him he would 'slit your throat' if any gay person came into the house, so he hid his sexuality.
- After confessing he dropped out of university to model, his father threw his clothes out the window and he vowed never to return home.
- His drinking and drug use peaked until he lost his passport, brought a bottle of vodka into the British Embassy, and decided to get sober for 14 years.
- He got the British Vogue job after a call from Conde Nast's Jonathan Newhouse, despite believing Vogue 'wasn't meant for people like me.'
- His debut December 2017 issue, with Adwoa Aboah on the cover dedicated to Great Britain, made the magazine 'go up up up.'
- Overwork and lack of sleep caused his retina to detach four times in one eye, leading to about five eye operations.
- He developed PTSD over fear of going blind, with the thought 'you're gonna go blind' running constantly in his mind.
- His mother, the love of his life and source of his fashion passion, died in 2016 after years of decline following a stroke.
Worth remembering
- He was born in Takoradi, Ghana; his father was an army major and his mother a seamstress with an atelier of about 40 women.
- On arriving at Gatwick the family was detained because immigration rules for Commonwealth arrivals had changed about a month earlier.
- He was stopped on a train from Hammersmith by fashion editor Simon Foxton and asked to be a model at age 16.
- His tight 90s 'tribe' included Naomi Campbell, makeup artist Pat McGrath, and hairstylists Ben and Pati Wilson.
- He stayed at i-D magazine in a fashion-director role for around 20 years before moving on.
- When he got the Vogue job, newspapers compared it to 'Crufts' with a cat winning, mocking his appointment.
- A new security guard once refused to let him into the Vogue building, telling the editor to use the loading bay.
- He notes an Oprah Winfrey cover sold out, helping prove his claim that 'diversity sells.'
- The episode is sponsored by Airbnb, with Steven Bartlett urging listeners to rent spare space at airbnb.co.uk/host.
- Enninful has been married for about 20 years to a director who critiques his covers and helped him get sober.