The scene is in May or June 2008, P.O. (pre-Obama). I was working at my desk (still working on the “successful” part) while dreaming of escaping my finance job in the City of London to become a successful writer. Out of the blue I got a message on my BlackBerry that Vogue Italia was using only black models and the “experts” were predicting it would be the best-selling edition ever… so us black folks had to go out and buy en masse. BT. Before the day was over, I had received the same message, or a version of it, dozens of times.
Whether it was a sincere appeal for social solidarity, a sinister viral marketing campaign, or both, it worked: I bought a fashion magazine for the first time in my life, even though it was a language I could barely order a glass of water in. newsstands. I was far from alone: the magazine sold out within 72 hours on both sides of the Atlantic, triggering a massive reprint of 30,000 copies in the US, 20,000 in Italy and 10,000 in the UK. The moment made it clear, even to the average person, that fashion has a serious diversity problem. Rather, fashion had an anti-Black problem, making it almost a traditional Western industry or institution.
Nearly 10 years later, British Vogue would have its own Obama moment with the appointment of Edward Enninful as editor. Ladbroke Grove’s Ghanaian-born, British-raised son, Enninful, is an experienced stylist (in fact, he was the stylist for every model who appeared in the all-black issue of Vogue Italia in 2008). He is a somewhat mysterious name who was first appointed as the fashion director of iD magazine at the age of 18 and also served as fashion and style director. K magazine, Enninful was the first man and first Black person to hold this title. In retrospect, this was the equivalent of handing him the keys to a one-of-a-kind Rolls-Royce, asking him to travel 1,000 miles through the tsunami and return it in pristine condition. Full tank. Somehow he managed to do it.
When Enninful was appointed editor of British Vogue, Britain was far behind the United States in terms of diversity. No Black or brown person had ever held a major government office, a Black or brown prime minister was a pipe dream (which quickly turned into a real-life nightmare), the number of Black people with the authority to run TV, for example, was nearly as tall as that of Black people in the royal family. was on par with the number (zero), and fashion (including the fashion media), like other British media, art and culture, was still largely the playground of the pigmentation-free upper middle class. privilege.
So Enninful’s diversity milestone moment was met with a backlash. “It’s as if we’d entered Crufts and the cat had won,” Enninful said, a remark attributed to a rival editor who had risen to the top position. Unconscious racism also emerged when editor Enninful was instructed by a white security guard to use the tailgate at the company building. Harsh as they were, these experiences and remarks seemed to further inflame rather than surprise the now-departed Vogue editor.
Today, Enninful stands tall as the undisputed master in the arts, crafts and fashion media business. The diversity of thought, staff and tone she brings to the table from the top has helped lift British Vogue through a period of print media crisis, while maintaining the publication’s core essence and readership. His grasp of the genre meant he could subvert it. Turning that around and taking it to places it hasn’t been before, while also creating opportunities for people who were previously outside of the industry.
Under his editorship, British Vogue became a key organ of irreversible movements towards a more diverse, compassionate and truly competitive Britain. The sordid topics of much of the British media (race, disability, homosexuality, sustainability, climate crisis, “wokeness”) have become British Vogue’s selling points.
Relating to: Edward Enninful completes British Vogue reign with 40 cover stars
As high-level politics shows, appointing people of color to powerful jobs can be a blessing, a disappointing indifference, or a crushing curse for people of the same race. Enninful was a blessing. Her editorship represented a full-spectrum expansion of the pool of possibilities (and personnel) in fashion and beauty journalism. Quickly transitioning from recruitment agent to photographer to Oscar-nominated director, Misan Harriman became the first black photographer to shoot the cover of British Vogue in its 104-year history. Giants of Black British thought and literature such as Yomi Adegoke, Bernardine Evaristo and Afua Hirsch became regular subjects on the broadcast. Perhaps his unique success in this regard is that he handed over the reins to another Black woman, Chioma Nnadi.
Enninful’s latest cover, shot by renowned photographer Steven Meisel (who also shot all the models in the 2008 All-Black issue), features a who’s who of models, celebrities and activists, including Naomi Campbell and Iman, Serena Williams, Oprah Winfrey, and more. fashion designer Victoria Beckham. The stark diversity of the cover is a reflection of how Enninful’s tenure as editor transformed fashion and beauty journalism and the progressive impact she had on Britain and the world. He left a mark that England could not erase.
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Nels Abbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker and the author of Think Like A White Man. His new book, The Hip Hop MBA: Brutal Capitalism Lessons from Rap’s Moguls, comes out in April
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