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Edward Enninful has ended his British Vogue reign with a spectacular nod to 40 of his biggest hits. On Thursday, the outlet revealed the farewell cowl of the soon-to-be former editor-in-chief’s closing difficulty as he steps down from his historic position and Chioma Nnadi takes over.
Enninful’s appointment at British Vogue made him the primary man and the primary Black editor to carry the title. To cap his tenure after six and a half years as head of editorial content material, Enninful gathered 40 former cowl stars for a category image — if one’s class was fortunate sufficient to incorporate supermodels Naomi Campbell and Iman, tennis champion Serena Williams, media mogul and former daytime discuss present host Oprah Winfrey and dressmaker Victoria Beckham — photographed by Steven Meisel.
“It was clear to all of us on the group that nobody lady might or ought to encapsulate these previous few years for the journal. What we would have liked was a bunch, to lean into the facility of the collective to convey to life what I hope has been a daring, disruptive and evolutionary interval in Vogue‘s historical past,” Enninful wrote of the brainstorming that went into the quilt shoot. “Additionally they – by dint of extraordinary affect, power of character, model and affect – wanted to have reached past trend and tradition to vary the material of society within the 2020s, in methods small and enormous and all the time constructive.”
“It has been a really magnificent chapter for me personally right here at British Vogue however it was obvious on set that day that it was the togetherness, neighborhood and teamwork that we cherished essentially the most,” he added. “And now? Nicely it’s the joy of no matter this thrilling and unchartered decade has in retailer subsequent is not it. For all of us.”
In keeping with a video shared on the journal’s Instagram web page and YouTube web page, the group was assembled at a New York studio. Every of the ladies wears a easy black or white outfit, a seemingly uniform method that truly emphasizes how Enninful’s method to trend has all the time been entwined with a thoughtfulness for range and inclusivity that features race, ethnicity, age, dimension and gender identification. The 40 fashions are solely a small pattern of how Enninful labored to broaden British Vogue‘s concept of magnificence.
The quilt contains a number of important callbacks to Enninful’s profession highlights, resembling mannequin and activist Adwoa Aboah, who was featured in Enninful’s debut December 2017 difficulty, Laverne Cox, who grew to become the primary trans individual to look on British Vogue‘s cowl for its September 2019 difficulty, and Paloma Elsesser, who beforehand fronted the outlet’s size-inclusive particular difficulty in April 2023 below the tagline “The brand new supers,” alongside Valuable Lee.
In the editor’s farewell letter, Enninful writes: “By no means be too wedded to the previous, and completely by no means let the improper voices in your head. I nonetheless recall, throughout my early tenure right here in 2017, brainstorming my first points, when a senior firm staffer mentioned these phrases to me: ‘Range equals downmarket.’ I used to be shocked, in fact, but additionally genuinely confused,” he continues. “Had been individuals actually so… what’s a non-confrontational phrase I can attain for right here? We could go along with ‘close-minded’? Or had been there – are there – nonetheless individuals unable to see the world for the way it really is?”
“Practically seven years on and I really feel so pleased with the group right here in London and the entire modifications now we have made collectively. When my first cowl got here out — that includes Adwoa Aboah, a Black mannequin and activist, main a roster of British names with a spectrum of various identities — it was seen as a shock to the system. Non-white cowl stars had been seen for as long as industrial nonstarters (this journal had been a key offender, in truth),” Enninful writes. “How ridiculous, I believed. And so it proved. Our first cowl was a success and by September of the next 12 months, I keep in mind standing in a newsagent and seeing virtually the entire covers on the entire trend magazines that includes Black and brown girls.”
Later he writes, “Vogue is rarely proof against the tumult of life, and typically our job was to convey a bit of levity, magnificence and distraction to bear. At different instances, I hope we weren’t afraid to have interaction with the problems society was dealing with head on… Although, when all is alleged and executed, you already know who I’ll miss most of all? You, our readers. The passionate and supportive neighborhood that change into the brand new Vogue viewers is in contrast to another on the earth, and it drove me each step of the best way.”
As Enninful steps into a brand new place as Vogue‘s international inventive and cultural advisor, Nnadi takes over as head of editorial content material, relatively than editor-in-chief. She is the primary Black lady to take the position.
See the total function within the March difficulty of British Vogue, obtainable through digital obtain and on newsstands Feb. 13.
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