He's in fashion: reflections on Edward Enninful's 'A Visible Man'

It’s March, early March. And I can already say with a fair amount of certainty that Edward Enninful’s fantastic memoir, A Visible Man, will be one of my favourite reads of the year. The book recounts a fascinating life story, from Enninful’s childhood on a military base in Ghana to the career pinnacle of becoming editor-in-chief of British Vogue. But that is only part of what makes A Visible Man such a joy to read. The word ‘inspiring’ applies to this book in so many ways and on so many levels—to how hard Enninful has worked, how innately creative he is, how he’s achieved so much living with serious illness, how he has tirelessly and effectively pushed for better representation in the fashion industry. He has one hell of a story to tell, and in his intelligent, authentic voice, he tells it very well.

I have a past relationship with fashion, but my world has not coincided with it for a long time. In my younger days, caring about fashion went hand in hand with lack of confidence. The endless (and expensive) pursuit of ‘the right clothes’ that would magically give me an inner strength I didn’t naturally possess. So being less concerned with fashion as the years have gone by actually feels more healthy. I care about what I wear, but not overly. I don’t have many clothes, but I like the ones I have. None bought in a rush or frustrated search to portray the image of something I’m not without them.

That being said, looking back now I think I was always drawn to fashion for more than merely aspirational reasons. It’s the creativity. As an introverted, academic type, I was never going to be hanging out with an art school crowd, and yet the writer me now realises I was always drawn to that world. That bold ownership of a creative life. The dedicated crafting of something beautiful. In a peeling student house with plate-sized mould and shelf of legal textbooks on one wall, I stuck up a collage of adverts from the glossies on another. After ending up in a post-graduation career cul-de-sac, I took an admin job at the London College of Fashion while figuring out my next steps, the most amazing environment to shuffle papers in. I was a Vogue subscriber for many, many years, until reaching the inevitable stage when copies were collecting on a shelf unread. All this to say, it makes sense that I would be interested in reading this memoir, but I never expected to connect with it as deeply as I did.

Enninful was born in Ghana. His father a military official, his mother ran a dressmaking business. After a coup where Enninful’s father suddenly found himself on the wrong side of power, the family sought asylum in the UK, and at 13 Enninful was transplanted from Ghana to London. The family got a flat in Ladbroke Grove and the shy Enninful began to absorb the diversity and fashion all around him. He was spotted by a stylist on the tube one day, invited to model, and from there his career journey began. He found he was more interested in the behind-the-camera work at shoots, helping to put the looks together. So he began styling and by 18 was the youngest fashion director of i-D magazine. Then onward, an unstoppable trajectory working with designers, for W magazine, Vogue Italia and American Vogue, and in 2017 being named editor-in-chief of British Vogue.

This is the story of a man who found what he was good at, what he loved and never stopped moving forward. He humbly attributes his drive to imposter syndrome, to the desire to keep pushing himself to be better. But hard work alone wouldn’t have achieved what Enninful has. He undoubtedly has a gift, and when he talks about creativity, the words almost crackle off the page like magic. As a stylist, he sees himself as a storyteller—once he has a story in mind, the visual images he’ll use to tell it often come to him while he sleeps. Magic.

It is impossible to consider Enninful’s achievements without discussing his ambition to make the fashion industry more inclusive. He has used the platform he has throughout his career to ask questions and push for change. He was behind Vogue Italia printing an entire Black issue, at a time when it was still considered ‘bad for sales’ to have a Black cover star. Enninful was living in America when he was approached about the editorship of British Vogue, and looking back at Britain, especially in the time following the Brexit vote, he saw an opportunity to shift the focus of the magazine to represent all that it meant to be British, creating a space where everyone could see themselves reflected back.

In putting this newsletter together I’ve revisited the copies of Vogue I have from early in Enninful’s tenure—they’re wonderful. Brimming with great stories, both visual and written—his first issue, December 2017, features articles by Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie no less. And it’s a delight to see all the names that ran through the memoir—people that had shaped and shifted his career (Steven Meisel, Pat McGrath, Steve McQueen, Craig McDean, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell)—collaborating and supporting Enninful’s editorial debut.

There are a lot of names dropped in A Visible Man. Reading in the Preface “that friend was Idris Elba”, quickly followed by “Classic Rih” (referring to the pop legend bursting late into his wedding ceremony), I was disappointed—eye roll, oh it’s that sort of memoir. But actually, as I read on and got a better sense of Enninful’s voice, it all seems pretty authentic for somebody who moves in that world. These are simply the people he knows and works with—often from a time before they were hugely famous, their stars have risen simultaneously. There’s a wonderful image of him feeling the surreality of how far his world has shifted watching his strict, buttoned-up father (referred to throughout with full title, ‘Major Crosby Enninful’) dancing wildly next to Madonna at the party to celebrate his OBE (awarded for services to diversity in the fashion industry).

While Enninful’s rise to fame is fascinating and inspiring in itself, A Visible Man conveys so much more than an interesting person’s history. Reading it at times feels like tapping directly into a seam of creative energy. Enninful may be blessed with an innate vision, but he has worked incredibly hard to make full use of it. And he’s combined the talent he has with the status he’s earned to try and build a broader more diverse fashion world, that better represents the broad and diverse Britain he loves. Layer upon layer upon layer of inspiration.

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While A Visible Man will stick with me for being more than just another fashion memoir, I’ve always enjoyed reading insights into the magazine world.

Inside Vogue by former British Vogue editor-in-chief, Alexandra Shulman, is a brilliant read (although I feel a little less warm towards her since reading about the huffy press she put out slighting EE when he was announced as her successor). It’s Shulman’s diary of the magazine’s hundredth anniversary year, covering the super secret Duchess of Cambridge cover shoot and the companion exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. There was a brilliant documentary shown on the BBC (Absolutely Fashion, not currently available to stream) that went with this book, with journalist Richard Macer following the Vogue team around (often to Shulman’s irritation) behind the scenes of this momentous year.

Grace is a gorgeous book. Beautifully written and stunningly joyful orange shelf highlight telling the fascinating story of a fascinating woman. Similarly to Enninful, Grace Coddington arrived wide-eyed in London as a teenager at an amazing time for fashion. She was a model first, became a (visionary) stylist and eventually Anna Wintour’s right-hand woman at American Vogue. Revisiting Enninful’s first British Vogue again this week, I noticed he’d immediately brought Coddington on board as a Contributing Editor. Then scrolling Instagram today spotted this wonderful picture of them both on EE’s Stories. Pair of total legends.

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Extra credit:

Music plays a big part in Enninful’s life story, making him an excellent choice for a Desert Island Discs castaway: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fvns

This is a great interview from Waterstones about the memoir’s release, which gives a real sense of Enninful’s natural magic:

Another fascinating interview (EE showing his intelligence and incredible patience in response to a very flat interviewer), this time at the Oxford Union:

Although the two-part documentary Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue is currently unavailable to stream, I did find some articles discussing it: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/sep/09/absolutely-fashion-inside-british-vogue-review-ridiculous-fascinating-and-fabulous-of-course https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/sep/02/absolutely-fashion-inside-british-vogue-bbc2-gucci

The 2009 movie The September Issue (NOW/sky documentaries) is a spectacular behind-the-scenes insight into American Vogue and the dominion of the frankly quite terrifying, Anna Wintour. Grace Coddington emerged as the undoubted star of this documentary. Enninful actually has a not-too-flattering cameo in the film. He’s chastised on camera by Wintour and the shoot he’s styled cut from the eponymous September issue. He relates this incident in pretty good humour in the memoir.

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