Edward Enninful
Posted by Stephan Moskovic | May 18th, 2010
Edward Enninful, has played a key role in shaping fashion’s history. From his tenure as the youngest ever fashion editor of i-D, to his styling work with photographers like Steven Meisel and Craig McDean, Enninful has blazed a unique and influential path. A look back at his trailblazing career charts the evolution of some of last decade’s fashion milestones; from the rise of grunge, to the supermodel wave and fashion’s current curve fixation, Enninful has played a part in each development.
In an exclusive models.com interview One Management’s own Christopher Michael sits down with the always opinionated superstar stylist, to find out more about the man behind the movements.
ONE INTERVIEW // Edward Enninful
Interview by One Management's Christopher Michael
Photos courtesy of Edward Enninful and Art + Commerce
Christopher Michael: In life there are usually two different ways of realizing our own personal evolution, sometimes it’s a moment of revelation and other times we simply realize things have changed when people begin to interact with us differently. With you having started at i-D magazine at such a young age, what was that experience like for you?
Edward Enninful: I was really thrown into it; it was a question of sink or swim, really. I was painfully shy when I started so it was an amazing growing experience. Sitting with Corrine Day and all of these people, having to act like a grown up but really being a child, having just left school… It made me grow, I guess. Looking back on that now, I realize how young I really was. I remember the fear every night, the fear of failure or the fear that things were not going to work out. The nice thing is when you are doing something at that age, people are really rooting for you. There were a lot of photographers behind me along with Terry and Tricia [Jones] from i-D. I was able to make mistakes and learn from them, whereas I don’t think people are really able to do that now…
Craig Mcdean, i-D,October 2002Craig Mcdean, i-D, June/July 2002
CM: Well everything is much more of an instant gratification oriented process now than it was then…It is surely harder to notice the gradual evolution of the business when you are right in the eye of it, but there must be some definitive moments in time, since you’ve started, where you feel the business really went through change…
EE: Oh my God, Yes! When I started it was the late 80’s, early 90’s, when there was a whole excitement about grunge. It was this generation of people excited by fashion. Most of us grew up in London without a lot of money and none of us were from these sort of “grand families”, so it was this really great and exhilarating period. The industry was very different back then. People were creating things and making things, I remember all of us, the photographers and stylists, being invited to Paris to watch Helmut Lang, and Jean Colonna and Ann Demeulemeester…. these were the sort of people that would invite all of us from London. Actually, when I look back on it now, they were really the ones that were defining fashion at that time, and the Belgians… there was a new language, and they called it grunge. I remember when America embraced that, and then the next big movement when Tom Ford came and all of us were sort of momentarily lost. We were all into this anti-glamour glamour and then Tom came in and everybody embraced this new woman that was very sexy, and very predatory. All of that went on for awhile…I think that there was a good 10 years of that gloss… Fashion is very cyclical, things don’t happen every 2 years.
Also, I started at the time when street fashion was so relevant- the late 80’s kids off the street. Now you have Facebook and Twitter and all of these different media sources. My assistants are only 21 and they have access to so much! Now, anybody can be a star. In a funny way it’s kind of done a full circle, because when I started it was all about how you looked on the street and again it’s all about how kids look going out at night and what all of these blogs are talking about…“Even though things have gone back, it’s also changed and it’s really just become a new version of what it once was.”
CM: People always seem to look back on the 90’s and recall the money supermodels were commanding and sort of just assume that it went straight across the board…
EE: Well supermodels don’t exist anymore. I know almost all of them, and what is really interesting is that they were clever and astute business women; I don’t think that really exists now. “They had the chance to grow and work with photographers from Steven [Meisel] to Peter [Lindbergh], and the chance to really build characters.. The industry really cultivated girls and I think that is also gone.” I’m obsessed with models, I always have been, and I miss that, the girl taking the time to grow…. “I remember Kate Moss from when she was 14 years old. She didn’t just become famous…” It took a lot of years and a lot of people putting time into her, and I feel that we’ve lost that. That was another period in modeling where designers wanted models who wouldn’t overshadow or overpower the clothes. Suddenly people wanted models that were androgynous, there were not many models of color anymore, and they stopped creating stars. The girls before had so much power that there had to be some kind of a stop to it all…but now, they are back – I mean…everybody’s back.
CM: We talked about how there’s a process where things take a good period of time to really start and go through the spectrum of fashion’s inner circles and then eventually hit the runways and reach the masses, etc. For the past few years that mantra has really been all about the return of the supermodels. However, the new statement seems to be about putting the fashion editors of the world in front of the cameras and on the covers, blogs and in all sorts of media. What’s your take on this?
EE: Oh, I don’t know about that. It probably serves a time but it’s not something that I think about. I don’t feel that people really want to see what I look like or any of that…Obviously if they want to hear what you have to say that’s great, because you can really influence, you know, the kid at school that doesn’t think he’ll ever make it, and that sort of thing. The industry is always looking for stars I guess… Most editors I know are a little too, sort of, insecure. Most editors feel so propelled by their insecurities, whether it’s to create new images or not to copy what they’ve already done before…well… for me anyways, I can’t speak for anyone else. I always feel like the next story is “the one.” After all these years I tackle each project as if it’s the last. It’s the same blood, sweat, and tears that go into it. I never, for one second, feel that I can just sit back and not research. You are always questioning yourself; I don’t stop questioning myself from every angle, really. “I love the ones who can go “Oh I’ve done it,” and I mean, great for them. I just personally always feel under such pressure to greater things.”
CM: It seems as though most people in fashion tend to feel as though they loved the business but never really knew what it was that they wanted to do exactly. Did you always know that you wanted to be a stylist?
EE: It was exactly the same (for me). I mean, my mother was a seamstress so I grew up sketching with her; I knew how to construct dresses from a very young age, my sisters do and all my brothers do as well, but I didn’t really think there was a career in it until I met the stylist Simon Foxton and Nick Knight when I was 16. I just thought you were either a seamstress, or some kind of a designer. I never thought about the word stylist. “I didn’t know what a stylist was and at that time, it didn’t really exist.” You know, it was more like Grace Coddington, and the editors at magazines doing the styling- but they weren’t really “stylists,” they were more editors. I think it was in the late 70’s and early 80’s that the term stylist came about.
Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia, Sept 2004, Jul 2004, Jul 2005, Aug 2004
Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia March 2006Steven Meisel, Lanvin, Spring/Summer 2008CM: Some of my favorite people in the business have credited you with giving them their first chance or being one of the first people to support them in the beginning of their careers..
EE: “I believe in you, I believe in the next generation, I believe in youth.” I’m obsessed with street fashion and what I see on the street, it’s how I started, it was really reporting from the streets. The industry will not progress unless we find the new, so I always work with a few young photographers and designers…
CM: Who was that person for you in terms of your start in this business?
EE: Nick Knight, Simon Foxton….and of course, Terry and Tricia Jones…paramount. Basically, I was spotted on a train by Simon Foxton and he said that I should be a model, so I did that for a couple of years. Within the first week he introduced me to Nick Knight. Nick took a lot of pictures of me when I was younger and later on introduced me to i-D when I was 17 because I wanted to work for magazines. So, Nick introduced me to Terry and Trish, and I began assisting Beth Summers right before my 18th birthday. From early on in my career these people were very paramount. Then I worked for Calvin Klein when I was 22, did the advertising with Craig McDean and Pat McGrath and Art Director Ronnie Cooke Newhouse, that’s another part of me… Pat McGrath- we literally started at the same time; we’ve been friends over these years and worked together. The second stage was meeting Franca Sozzani and Steven Meisel, that propelled me to see another side of fashion. I was very underground and then I met Steven, and he really expanded my repertoire. “I always say that I was a London stylist but when I worked with Steven, I became a proper stylist.” We did all of these stories together, and I learned so much from him. The next step in my trajectory was when Anna Wintour called me in to work for American Vogue. “Anna, I mean Anna is an incredible editor, I don’t even need to talk about it… But with Anna, I learned that fashion can be fun and it didn’t have to be dark, fashion could be all these things and still have an edge, and still be a business.” I’ve been very, very lucky actually, to have met such amazing people along the way…
Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia, June 2004CM: Aside from your obvious talent, the key seems to be that never ending passion for it all and not becoming complacent..
EE: I wake up in the morning like a kid, so excited to go to work… “If I’m working with somebody I love, I can’t sleep…You know?… I’m still a fan of all these girls.” I love going to work and being part of the creative process and I’m lucky that I’m still called upon to do that.
CM: I think with i-D it’s safe to say that you have the “carte blanche” but with your stories for Italian Vogue and Steven, or even when you are working on American Vogue, what is the sort of process?…Do you guys call each other at night saying “Oh, I have this great idea!” or…?
EE: Well, I think it kind of goes both ways. Sometimes you get a call from Anna with an idea, or a call from Steven, and when it works it works. But, “I think what’s on the bottom line of this is the passion and the excitement and wanting to say something new.”
CM: At the risk of sounding like every other voice in the industry right now I have to ask, this season four key shows brought bigger, healthier models to the runway and it seems to have given the world the impression that it was really the whole season that embraced this. Like so many other things, it takes time to implement and we’ve been hearing about this for a number of seasons now…Do you think the time has arrived where it will really change across the board?
EE: I’ve been a part of the CFDA health initiative that Anna has been working on for so long and they’ve really been trying for the past four or five seasons to get this to happen. I think it’s really a result of that; we were all made to look at what we were doing. I remember Nian Fish from KCD called all the stylists in and everyone had to look at what they were doing. I’m all up for healthy beautiful women, you know. Cindy, Naomi…they were 8’s, 10’s … They were amazing women, they were not stick thin insects. So, for me I hope this carries on and I know that most magazines are really happy that we now have just beautiful women. It’s definitely a step in the right direction. “I think everyone is excited by the idea of the woman and not the child or the girl.” I think it’s a sign of the times… “At one time, designers wanted to have models that wouldn’t overshadow the clothes and now designers want models that will enhance their clothes.” It’s been a long time coming. It’s a mood, isn’t it? When the black models started coming back- Miuccia and Nicolas did it…there was a whole moment. I remember when Miuccia used Jourdan in her show and then the next season there were ten black models. And then, to not have black models in the show was completely uncommon. I hope to see more of Karolina, and Ambrosio. And not just those girls in particular but even more like them…Everyone is excited. “A good designer is a good designer, and a good designer can adapt to the times. Unless you adapt you get left behind, so the good ones will always transcend.”
Steven Meisel, Vogue, October 2006
Beautiful. Great great interview.
I love Edward. He is a genius
Just LOVE this interview.
he sounds so modest and humble, while he shaped the fashionindustry in such a way that most of the people not even can dream off. and still having the drive to make the next project the best project…not getting lazy..WOW!
Also the shots that give this interview colour..just totally back up his words…
oh man!! love it! hope you’ll keep lasting for a long time..never give up,..but keep up!
wish you good luck (and much more work)!
Edward is an amazing personalty. Great interview
http://allaboutmodels.blogspot.com/
Edward’s work has inspired me from the very beginning! His editorial work is second to none.Such great words from a true creative who never fails to amaze me with his total love and knowledge for everything he does.
What a great interview. He has a terrific perspective on the industry. And looking at the pics, I didn’t realize he did the Meisel plastic surgery story. Thank you for running this; he’s one of my absolute favorites.
aaahhhhhh…. amazing. he’s just the best stylist. chic but always with a sick twist!!!
Great Interview. Beautiful Photos. Fantastic
Wow. What a fabulous profile on an extraordinary career. Enninful’s eye for style is impeccable!
http://www.chungkitblog.wordpress.com
love the interview; great job on selecting different fashion heads to do interviews. keep up the amazing work MDC!
Nothing but Love for what this man does in the business. He is like no other. Bravo Guys, Great interview!
Such an illuminating interview. I hope to be someone like him one day.
This is a great piece. I know a few men who aspire to be like Edward one day. This is truly inspirational. Nice job MDX.
Jimmy
http://www.delastyle.blogspot.com
And here I didn’t even know this man existed. Good interview.
I LOVE FASHION!
WOW what an amazing interview…I am a huge fan of Edward and all of his work.
http://trevofashionisto.blogspot.com
Astounding interview! Despite the obvious notority of Edward himself, your interview questions display an amazing knowledge and passion for the world of fashion! Well done! So young still and yet so very talented! Impressive! You are definitely meant to be working in this field.
finally some1 who truly deserve what he conquire
EDWARD IS FIERCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND AN ABSOLUTELEY LOVELEY GUY- TRUE LONDON
I love Edward, but am I the only one who finds this interview a bit bleaty? I mean, some of the questions are longer than the answers. Come on MDC, you can do better!
Wow! This article is so on point. I agreed with pretty much everything Edward said. Long live the classic fashion industry days…:/
Nice interview.
very moving
I’m not really into reading interviews, but read a couple of coments on how good it was, so I went right through it. love how down to earth he sounds: “If I’m working with somebody I love, I can’t sleep…You know?… I’m still a fan of all these girls.”
He is a genius
a sweet person as well
Never quite new how talented Edward is.I found this very interesting, loved it!!
Thank you for the interview <3
Wonderful <3
AMAZING INTERVIEW CHRISTOPHER!!!!!
xx
Thanks for posting the interview! 😀
spectacularrrrrrrr!
wow i love these pix
Only I can say is BRAVO!!!!!!!!
I came to see Cloe, like his fashion style and the wacky ~!
I think his vision is epic.His tone/wording phrasing inrelation to fashion is refreshing, nice sang-froid from Edward Enninful.
i love the pics and great wording, feeling about fashion keep it going
For a while, not for awhile. Can’t anyone on the internet write properly?
And Edward is someone who just got lucky. Another young boy with no experience picked up (literally) by Simon Foxton.