The Verse’s Rosie Smith tells us what she thinks of the announcement of Edward Enninful as the new Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue
Welcome Edward Enninful, New Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue!
Alexandra Shulman’s replacement as Editor-in-Chief at British Vogue was recently announced. The man chosen for the job is Edward Enninful. The best man truly did win in this case. From being named a surprise outsider last month, Enninful has officially been announced the first male editor-in-chief of British Vogue.
Enninful truly deserves the title as did the 10 others before him. His fashion career began at the early age of 16 – thinking about how I was doing my GCSEs at around that age makes me slightly worried! Enninful was inspired by his mother, who was a seamstress, and kicked off his fashion career when he was spotted by a model scout in London. By the time he was 18 he became the fashion director at i-D magazine. Where he stayed for more than two decades. Enninful was the youngest ever fashion director for an international publication!
He then went on to work at Italian Vogue as a Contributing Editor, and at American Vogue. Since then he has received The Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the 2014 British Fashion Awards. Also, he received an OBE for his services to diversity in the fashion industry. Currently, Enninful is the fashion and creative director at W magazine and is taking over at British Vogue on the 1st of August.
Previous Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman made her departure public in January after holding the position for 25 years. Shulman was born into a family of journalists in London and was adamant not to follow her parents’ career path. However, Shulman’s career in journalism began at Over-21 magazine. From there she went on to Tatler in 1982, and worked her way up to Features Editor over 5 years! Shulman worked at the Sunday Telegraph as an editor, joined the Vogue family in 1988 as a features editor, then became editor at GQ and went back to Vogue in 1992.
Alexandra found herself in the firing line in the early 90s, criticised about featured photographs of Kate Moss and her “extreme thinness, dark circles and unkept” look. This is when the discussion of magazines portraying an unhealthy body-image began. In June 2009 Shulman took a stand and wrote a letter to major international fashion houses, complaining about their “minuscule” sample sizes. Since Shulman became editor-in-chief British Vogue’s circulation has risen. And she now has an OBE to her name for her services to the magazine industry.
I see Alexandra Shulman’s work at British Vogue over the last 25 years as monumental. She has steered the magazine through great change. Despite the departure of Shulman I believe British Vogue is going to do greatly under the guidance of Edward Enninful!
