Time September 21/September 28, 2020
sell,” he says. “People thought diversity equals
down-market, but we’ve shown that it’s just good
for business.” British Vogue’s digital traffic is up 51%
since Enninful took over. He previously edited the
2008 Black issue of Vogue Italia, which featured
only Black models and Black women and sold out
in the U.S. and the U.K. in just 72 hours.
Since the incident with the security guard in
July—which Enninful reveals was not isolated and
had happened before (the culprit, a third-party
employee, was dismissed from headquarters)—
building staff have been added to the company’s
diversity-and-inclusion trainings. Enninful would
also like to see financial aid put in place for middle
management, “because we forget sometimes that
the culture of a place does not allow you to go from
being a student to the top.” In 2013, he tweeted
about another incident, where he was seated in the
second row at a Paris couture show while his white
counterparts were placed in front. “I get racially
profiled all the time,” he says, going right back to
his first experience of being stopped and searched
as a teenager, which “petrified” him. “When I was
younger, I would’ve been hurt and withdrawn, but
now I will let you know that this is not O.K. Peo-
ple tend to think that if you’re successful it elimi-
nates you, but it can happen any day. The difference
now is that I have the platform to speak about it and
point it out. The only way we can smash systemic
racism is by doing it together.”
Activism, then, is intrinsic. Fashion is altruism, as
much as story and craft, as much as the will to cap-
ture beauty. For Enninful, there is no limitation to the
radicalism possible through his line of work. Rather
than the seemingly unattainable elements of style
(the £350 zirconia ring, the £2,275 coat) obscuring
the moral fiber of the message, the invitation to think
and see more openly, the style instead leads you to
it, perhaps even inviting you to assemble something
similar within the boundaries of your real, more bru-
tal, less elevated existence. “Relatable luxury,” he
calls it, and though it’s difficult to imagine exactly
how one might evoke a £2,275 coat without his cus-
tomizing skills and magical thinking, I am inclined
to accept the notion, partly because I saw soul singer
Celeste in a £1,450 dress in the September issue and
think I might give it a try. Anything is possible. “I still
feel like I’m at the beginning,” he says with palpable
optimism. “I feel the fire of something new.” —With
reporting by Cady Lang/new york and madeLine
roaChe/London
Evans is the author of Ordinary People,
The Wonder and 26a
Enninful
at London
Fashion
Week on
Feb. 16,
2019
WAYNE TIPPETTS—SHUTTERSTOCK
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