The editor of Vogue has criticised the fashion magazine for appearing ‘cold’ and ‘stand-offish’ before he took over.
Edward Enninful, 48, from London, became the first black male editor of the title when he replaced Alexandra Shulman, 62, three years ago.
Now the 48-year-old has suggested Vogue had grown unappealing, ‘cold’, and ‘really stand-offish’ under Alexandra.
Edward told Talk Art podcast that he had changed the magazine by focusing on more diversity, explaining: ‘I would like to see different kinds of people, different sizes, different races, everything I’ve practiced in my career and that’s really what I injected into the magazine.
Vogue’s Editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, 48, branded the magazine ‘cold and stand-offish’ before he took the reigns three years ago and injected diversity into it (pictured, with the Duchess of Sussex, who guest-edited the September issue last year)
Alexandra had edited the fashion bible for 25 years but had been criticised for the lack of diversity in the magazine and its staff.
Since taking over, Edward has embraced the issue, making mixed-race British model and feminist activist Adwoa Aboah his first cover star.
‘I think before that when people thought of Vogue, they thought it was really stand-offish and cold,’ he said. ‘But we’re in different times.’
Edward, the son of a seamstress from Ghana who grew up in West London, said he wanted the magazine to better reflect the modern world.
Edward took the reigns three years ago from former editor Alexandra Shulman, who led the magazine’s team for 25 years
He explained: ‘It was just a sign of the times really. I didn’t reinvent the wheel. All I did was I just looked at the magazine and thought from my perspective what would I like to see?
‘It’s still Vogue, it still has to have that gravitas. It’s aspirational but I like to think I was able to bring a little bit of the world I saw, the world at large, the world you live in, the world we live in, into the magazine.
‘Vogue was always for everybody. It was just a case of continuing that narrative for today.’
Meanwhile Edward went on to reveal how he had selected Adwoa for his first cover in November 2017 he wanted to hit back at the perception – following the Brexit vote – that Britain was ‘xenophobic’.
Edward began his editorship by putting Adwoa Aboah on the cover of the magazine because he wanted to hit back at the nation that Britain was ‘xenophobic’
‘That’s not the England I know,’ he remembered thinking, explaining his decision to feature ‘great British’ talent like Zadie Smith and Kate Moss in the same edition.
‘The whole idea was to create a love story to Great Britain,’ he said. ‘Let’s not forget what this great country’s given the world.
He praised Adwoa for speaking out on mental health issues and described her as ‘a girl of today’.
He said: ‘I thought she was the perfect cover girl. She was black and she was a white.’
Edward went on to work with the Duchess of Sussex on her Forces for Change September issue of the magazine
He also allowed Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, to guest edit a special edition.
Edward, who in the past has said that criticism Meghan Markle received for her Forces For Change front cover was racist, recalled the moment when Princess Anne gave him his OBE in 2016 – for services to diversity.
‘I remember her saying to me so, you’re a brave person bringing diversity to that industry,’ he said.
Edward’s comments come after Alexandra wrote of how the ‘narrative’ of British Vogue has changed since her departure.
Edward recalled how Princess Anne had called him ‘brave’ for bringing diversity into the fashion industry
She writes: ‘A narrative was growing up around British Vogue being a place that was filled with ‘posh white girls’ that he [Enninful, who is black] would be getting rid of.’
Speaking to The Times Alexandra said: ‘Edward has his passions and his talents and his mission that he wants to do with it. They’re not the same as mine but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong to have them, or that it’s a worse magazine.’
Alexandra said she had made a real effort to ‘promote the legacy’ of her predecessor Dame Anna Wintor, 70, and was surprised when Mr Enninful didn’t do the same for her.
She added that she felt ‘sad’ that a ‘bitterness’ had emerged after she left and she was ‘made a sort of persona non grata’ (person not appreciated), which she called ‘unnecessary and really surprising’.