Earlier this month, one of the most established and respected fashion magazines in the world, British Vogue, appointed its first ever male editor-in-chief. Edward Enninful, the British-Ghanaian fashion stylist and former Creative and Fashion Director for W magazine, will replace the outgoing editor of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, making him not only the first man to take this position, but the first black and openly gay individual.
Story by Jacqueline Briddell
Edward Enninful. Courtesy of Vogue magazine.
With almost three decades of experience in the fashion industry, Enninful is well-versed in fields of design, styling, fashion directing and advertising. He has over six times the Instagram following of that of Shulman, but his newly announced position of power in an industry that is predominantly female-led has triggered some polarized opinions.
Enninful started his career at the British publication i-D magazine at the age of 18, where he maintained his position as Fashion Director for over 20 years. He had contributed to the American Vogue magazine and its sister publication Italian Vogue before landing his latest gig at the British edition of one of the oldest fashion magazines in the world.
An abundance of excited congratulatory tweets by prominent fashion figures such as models Karlie Kloss, Leomie Anderson, Neelam Gill and fashion designer Marc Jacobs, have led the positive responses to Enninful’s appointment. However, some critics are left questioning why yet another man was placed in a position of power, especially in a field that has been dominated by women since the beginning stages of the fashion and lifestyle magazine industry.
It is important to recognize Enninful’s achievements and his ability to ascend a figurative ladder of power as an openly gay black man, but it should be noted that this has been a more difficult process for women to do the same in other fields of print publications that are composed of majority straight, white men.
The best example of this type of stuggle is in hard news print publications. When examining the editor-in-chief positions of all major newspapers in the nation, it’s easy to notice that the vast majority of these authoritative positions are occupied by men. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal and even popular international morning newspapers such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Times of India and China Daily have all fallen in line with this trend: the editors-in chief-are all men.
One of the only exceptions of a highly attributed newspaper with a female editor-in-chief is The Guardian, which appointed current lady boss Katherine Viner in 2015, making her the first woman to ever hold this position.
Katherine Viner. Courtesy of Evening Standard.
Edward Enninful is no doubt an extremely qualified and popular pick for stepping in as the new editor-in-chief of British Vogue, and his presence as a black and queer identifying individual will surely bring fresh and diverse ideas to the fashion industry. Hopefully, his presence might spark an influx of male representation in power positions for fashion publications and erase the gender normativity within the industry, but the scarcity of female representation in other fields of print publications must also be overcome.
