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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 ultimate challenge 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 speak present host Oprah Winfrey and clothier Victoria Beckham — photographed by Steven Meisel.
“It was clear to all of us on the staff that nobody lady may or ought to encapsulate these previous few years for the journal. What we wanted was a gaggle, to lean into the ability of the collective to carry 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 influence, pressure of persona, model and affect – wanted to have reached past style and tradition to alter the material of society within the 2020s, in methods small and huge and all the time optimistic.”
“It has been a very magnificent chapter for me personally right here at British Vogue but it surely was obvious on set that day that it was the togetherness, neighborhood and teamwork that we cherished probably the most,” he added. “And now? Properly it’s the joy of no matter this thrilling and unchartered decade has in retailer subsequent is not it. For all of us.”
In accordance 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 strategy that truly emphasizes how Enninful’s strategy to style has all the time been entwined with a thoughtfulness for range and inclusivity that features race, ethnicity, age, dimension and gender id. The 40 fashions are solely a small pattern of how Enninful labored to broaden British Vogue‘s thought of magnificence.
The duvet consists of a number of important callbacks to Enninful’s profession highlights, reminiscent of mannequin and activist Adwoa Aboah, who was featured in Enninful’s debut December 2017 challenge, Laverne Cox, who turned the primary trans particular person to seem on British Vogue‘s cowl for its September 2019 challenge, and Paloma Elsesser, who beforehand fronted the outlet’s size-inclusive particular challenge in April 2023 underneath the tagline “The brand new supers,” alongside Treasured 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 flawed 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 in addition genuinely confused,” he continues. “Had been folks actually so… what’s a non-confrontational phrase I can attain for right here? We could go along with ‘close-minded’? Or have been there – are there – nonetheless folks unable to see the world for the way it really is?”
“Almost seven years on and I really feel so happy with the staff right here in London and all the adjustments we’ve got 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 actual fact),” Enninful writes. “How ridiculous, I believed. And so it proved. Our first cowl was successful and by September of the next yr, I bear in mind standing in a newsagent and seeing nearly all the covers on all the style magazines that includes Black and brown girls.”
Later he writes, “Vogue isn’t proof against the tumult of life, and generally our job was to carry somewhat levity, magnificence and distraction to bear. At different instances, I hope we weren’t afraid to interact with the problems society was dealing with head on… Although, when all is alleged and accomplished, you understand 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 every other on this planet, and it drove me each step of the way in which.”
As Enninful steps into a brand new place as Vogue‘s international artistic and cultural advisor, Nnadi takes over as head of editorial content material, somewhat than editor-in-chief. She is the primary Black lady to take the position.
See the complete function within the March challenge of British Vogue, out there by way of digital obtain and on newsstands Feb. 13.
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