Edward Enninful will be upholding the time-honoured, Condé Nast tradition of writing a memoir. Come September 2022, the editor-in-chief of British Vogue and the magazine’s inaugural European editorial director, will make like Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington, and André Leon Talley, and publish his autobiography, A Visible Man.
Though Enninful’s career spans decades, it was the psychic break and political chaos of 2020 which prompted the editor to put pen to paper. “In the last two years, the frantic hustle of fashion slowed a little – and alongside it came a powerful moment of societal change. Suddenly, all the things I had worked so hard to champion in my career – inclusively, opportunity, beauty in all its forms – felt as if they were top of the agenda,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’ve been extremely blessed with a platform to lead some of those conversations, and so – with a moment of calm to myself – the time had come to tell my own story for the first time.”
A Visible Man will trace Enninful’s journey from his childhood as a working class refugee in West London, to becoming i-D magazine’s youngest ever fashion director at the age of 18, to his eventual appointment to one of the most high-powered offices in fashion. “I have barely paused for breath,” he says of his 30 years in the industry. “There were scores of magazine shoots and era defining catwalk shows of course, but beyond the artistry and glamour of it all, I always felt like a man on a mission; an outsider who had found his way to the inner sanctum, bringing my own perspective to bear on an industry I loved but wanted to see evolve. And so I worked every hour of every day at breakneck speed.”
From spearheading Vogue Italia’s much-celebrated The Black Issue, to putting first responders and civil rights activists on the cover of British Vogue, Enninful has proved himself a steadfast changemaker within culture. “When all is said and done, I just want everyone to feel like no matter where they come from in life or whatever their dream is, they can grasp it. Just like I did.” A Visible Man will be published by Penguin Press on 6 September 2022.