British Vogue’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has said that while he has “hit career milestones I never dreamt of”, he is also “not done yet”.
The cover for Enninful’s upcoming book, A Visible Man, has been revealed, with the cover shot taken by Rafael Pavarotti, who also photographed the February 2022 cover of British Vogue which celebrates the rise of the African model.
Enninful, 50, who is also the European editorial director for Vogue, has described the book as his “unedited voice – a journey filled with hard work, roadblocks and raw determination”.
He told PA news agency: “When lockdown happened, I became introspective and started reflecting on my entire life – that’s when I decided to pick up a pen.
“I just turned 50 and got married, I’ve hit career milestones I never dreamt of, but I am not done yet.”
A Visible Man will be published worldwide on September 6 and traces his rise and journey in the global fashion industry.
He said: “My own story is inextricably bound up in my struggle to make fashion respond to the world, and in so doing help the world evolve too.
“It’s just only now as I have written this book do I see that how, in working as hard as I have to force a reckoning in fashion, I also forced a reckoning with myself.”
His credits as a fashion editor date back to 1991 when he was named fashion director of i-D.
He was born in Ghana, came to London as a child and grew up in the city’s Ladbroke Grove area.
He became interested in fashion as a teenager after being scouted as a fashion model and he was the youngest magazine fashion editor in the industry when he landed the job at i-D.
In 2016 he received an OBE for his services to diversity in the fashion industry and in 2017 he took over from Alexandra Shulman at the helm of British Vogue.
Last month Enninful married partner Alec Maxwell.
“I’m not normally given to speaking about myself. It was not always easy to do here as I couldn’t let the last chapter go, but I felt this urge to tell my story and I feel incredibly empowered to do so now,” Enninful said.
Brazilian photographer Pavarotti said: “Being part of this project was a great honour, I have such admiration for Edward, both personally and professionally.
“Creating this with him was organic and genuine. We shared and explored our thoughts. This cover reflects Edward’s soul, as beautiful and unique as this book, an extension of his universe.”
A Visible Man will be published by Bloomsbury in the UK on September 6 and simultaneously around the world by Bloomsbury in Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa, and in the US and Canada by Penguin Press.