TheOrator.Press Book Review: ‘A Visible Man’ By Vogue Editor Edward Enniful ~ November 2022

The Vogue Editor’s Memoir Celebrating His 50th Birthday, Being In Fashion For 34 Years & Beginning Married Life With His Long Term Partner, Earlier This Year

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Edward Enninful Is Powerful, Caring And Conscious. And The Editor of Vogue Magazine. When It Comes To Stylish Publications, Power And Fashion Fierceness, This Is The Sartorial Pinnacle of The Fashion Scene. It Is The Leader In The Conde Nast Stable of Glossy Magazines. What For Some Is Truly Wonderful Is That He Is A Different Kind of Leader. He Wants To Give Back. By Looking Back. And Thereby Driving Society Forward.

He Is A Living, Breathing, Loving Example of What It Is To Be Wonderfully Woke And This Is Happily Plain To See In His New Memoir, A Visible Man, Published By Bloomsbury, Priced £25.00.

So Why Now? He Says After The Murder of George Floyd In May 2020, He Was Moved By The Streets Across Five Continents Filled With Protestors. That Is Something We Can Relate To Here At TheOrator.Press As We Started Our Magazine After Also Being Inspired By The Protestors. He Also Adds That Both Getting Married And Turning 50 This Year Also Made Him Feel It Was A Good Time. The Wedding Was At Longleat And He Posted About It On His Instagram

I Felt A Familiar Gnawing Sensation Within. Young Peopare The Ones Who Will Help Us All Get Somewhere Better Than We Could Have Done Alone. More Than Anything. I Have Written This Book For Them”.

Edward Enniful On Writing His Memoir, 2022, Aged 50

Dior, Dolce And Gabbana, Gucci, Versace, Fashion Houses All Around The World, 5 Star Hotels Such As The Dorchester, The Ritz, The Savoy, And Claridges One of The Most Historically Fashionable Houses In The Whole World ~ The House of Windsor – Have All Come To Appreciate His Style Campaigns, Fashion Shows, or Ability To Charm A Crowd And Influence Society. A Little Catwalk Style Look Back At His Strut To The Heights of Hair, Make-Up, High Fashion And Haute Coture Is In Order As We Sneak A Peak At This Inspirational Autobiography.

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Worldwide Recognition Beckoned After He Became A Model Aged 16 Having Been Scouted By Stylist Simon Foxton In London. On A Tube No Less. And People Say Londoners Don’t Talk To Each Other On Trains!

Within Two Years, By 1990 He Became Editor of The Avand Garde Style Publication I-D Magazine Aged Just 18. Three Years Shy of Three Decades Later, Aged 45, He Has Had Strutted His Sartorial Stuff And Style Smarts Over The Years To Become The Editor In Chief of Britsh Vogue Magazine, In 2017. The Year Before He Had Been Honoured With An OBE For Services To The Fashion Industry In 2016. And Still With Much To Achieve By 2020 He Was Promoted Further To European Vogue Director.

He Was Originally Inspired By The Bright, Bold, Beautiful, Colours And Fabrics His Britsh Ghanaian Mother Used Whilst Working As A Seamstress For Her African Friends And Associates, Having Had To Flee Her Native Home of Ghana With Her Military Husband And Their Six Kids.

Adowa Aboah Adorned His First Front Cover Released November 2017, After Veteran Vogue Editor Alexandra Schulman’s Self-Selected Departure. She Supported Enninful’s Succession To This Most Majestic of Positions. King of The Fashion Industry!

Edward & Adowa Addressed The Issue of Diversity, Equality And Inclusion Immediately In A YouTube Conversation Marking The Ocassion. The British Ghanaian Compatriots Discuss What It Means To The Model To Be A Twenty-Five Year Old British Ghanaian Mixed-Race Woman Working As A Model And Living In Britain.

Really, Sincerely And Historically Dedicated To The Issue of Inclusion, Former Model Edoardo Had Bravely, Boldy And Brilliantly Grabbed The Bull By The Horns Years Earlier In Italy As He Championed The Groundbreaking Famous Italian Vogue “Black Issue” In The Summer of 2008. Then 36, And Famous With The Fashion Industry He Had Arrived In Italy A Decade Earlier, To Work On The Milan Based Magazine, As A Contributing Editor.

It Was A Dramatic Moment In Fashion History In Which The Black Community And Supporters of Diversity Made A Conscious Effort To Embrace Ennifuls Effort At Inclusion of Black Models Within The Fashion Industry As They Were Under Commissioned. Some Decried It. However Many More Cheered It.

Indeed Such Was Its Success That Vogue Subsequently Published Over 55, 000 Extra Copies To Satisfy Demand. Vogue Forces For Change Pioneer, Super Model Naomi Campbell, Led The Charge Together With Jourdan Dunn, Sessilee Lopez And Liya Kebede (See Vogue Quartet In Photo Gallery Below) As Each Model Featured On Four Famous Different Covers of The Magazine Which Also Featured Predominantly Black Models Inside. Tina Turner Showed Her Support For The 2008 Black Issue With A Special Photo Shoot Posing With Power And Aplomb Like A True Rock Star.

Photographer Stephen Meisel Was Central To The Shoots (And Was Later To Shoot Enninful’s December 2017 Editorial British Vogue Front Cover Debut Featuring Adwoa Aboah And Long Term Friend, Super Model Linda Evangilista, For The September 2022 Issue Five Years Later). Model Come Beauty Business Mogul Tyra Banks Also Featured In The Series. It Is Reportedly Vogue Italia’s Highest Ever Selling Edition. (Similarly Meghan Markle’s 15 Forces For Change Issue Guest Editor Issue of September 2019 Was Reportedly It’s Overall Biggest Ever Selling Issue.)

Denial That A Problem of Diversity Equality And Inclusion Even Existed Seemed To Be The Approach of The Female Italian Editor At The Time. Enniful’s Approach Seemed To Be More A Showcase of Beautiful Black Models Highlighting The Fact That Black In Indeed Beautiful. And Respect, Equal And Fair Treatment Is Due To All Models. The Groundbreaking Vogue Italia Series Materialised Throughout Summer 2008.

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Fourteen Years Later, Subsequently British Vogue Editor And European Vogue Director, In February 2022 He Did It Again In British Vogue February 2022. This Time It Was The Africa Issue Photographed By Rafeal Pavoratti. Styled By Edward Enniful. It Caused Great Uproar Amongst Some And Great Joy Amongst Others. This Dynamic Simply Goes To Show There Remains Work To Done, As There Is No Such Furore When European Girls Are On Vogue’s Front Cover.

But As Far As Breaking Down Barriers And Building Back Better Edward Enniful Has Made Leaps And Bounds And Continues To Strutt His Stuff Along The Catwalk of Life. In Doing So He Is Moving Society Along Too. And Progress Foward is The Natural Order of Things In Life.

Born In February 1972, He Was Awarded The Global Media Trailblazer Award, Aged 50. Earlier This Year At The LGBT Awards June 2022. In October 2021, Aged 49, He Received Another Official Royal Seal of Approval From The Then Prince Charles, As He Was Appointed A Global Ambassasor For The Prince’s Trust. That Same Year At The Annual British Fashion Council Awards He Was Honoured With An Award For Being A Leader of Change. And Also In 2021 As Editor of Vogue He Received The Editor of The Year Award At The Annual BSME (The British Society of Magazine Editors) Gathering.

Just A Decade Earlier, Aged 39, He Had Reached The Dizzy Heights of Becoming Style & Fashion Director of W Magazine In 2011 (W Standing For The World’s Fashion, Film, Art & Entertainment). In 2014, Aged 32 He Was Awarded The Isabella Blow Award For Outstanding Creativity In Fashion. At That Time, Twice The Young Age He Was When He Started Out As A Fashion Model Aged Just 16, He Had Already Achieved So Much And Yet So Much More Fabulousness Was Yet To Come. In 2017 Aged 45 He Enthroned As Editor-In-Chief of British Vogue.

In November 2020 Enninful Esquire Interviewed The Then Prince Charles About His Mantra “Buy One, Buy Well” And His Approach To Sustainable Fashion And A Royal Scottish/Italian Fashion Collaboration. The Subsequent December 2020 Issue Featured The Prince On His Land Photographed By Nick Knight (See Below). It Was Fascinating, Insightful And Inspiring. Later That Month It Was Announced That Enninful Had Been Elevated Even Higher To European Director of All European Vogues Which Include The British, French, Italian, German & Spainish Editions. (Knight Also Shot Dame Judy Dench For The Magazine’s June Edition The Same Year).

This Promotion Was All The More Sweet Because In July The Same Year He Had Been Wrongly Racially Profiled And Told By An Ignorant Racist Security Guard To Use The Back Door As He Walked Into The Main Entrance of The Conde Nast Headquarters, Off London’s Regent Street. He Reported That It Wasn’t The First Time He’s Been Wrongly Racially Profiled But He Refuses To Let His Colour Hold Him Back. (See Our Business Review Feature On This Unique Leader In Next Month’s Issue ~ Deember 2022).

British Vogue’s April 2022 ‘Platinum Queen’ Cover Features A Famous Vintage 1957 Photograph By Antony Armstrong Jones (The Late Princess Margaret’s Former Husband). In A November 2022 Social Media Post Yazmin Finney, Gen Z & Netflix Star Thanked Enninful & Vogue For Featuring Her On The December Front Cover Shot By Scott Trindle

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Read How This “Elegantly Edgy” Fashion Guru Became King of The Fashion World. Maybe You’ll Learn How You Can Also Rule The World. Your World. With Style!

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A Visible Man, Is So Monikered Because Enniful Refused To Be Invisible. Notwithstanding His “Immigrant, Working Class, Outsider, Gay, Black, Status,” He Selects 8 Significant Events In This Life, Each Titled After A Notable Periods of Change, As Chapters For The Book.

He Owns Where He Came From, Lest We Forget, He Is A Very Proud African Man. “From Politically Unstable Beginnings…On An Island of Tidiness Surrounded By A City Unconcerned By Order.” He Is Proudly From Ghana. And He Is Unmistakeably British. He Eloquently Describes This Journey From Outsider To Insider, Whilst Remaining His Authentic Self And Bringing Others Into The Fold.

From Getting Scouted As A Model At 16 To Walking & Talking With Royalty And Nobility By 50 And Why It’s Still Important To Champion Diversity And Continue To Go On Improving The Shortcomings of The Fashion Industry By Remaining A Visionary And A Pioneer For Change.

“My contention has always been that we need to be represented across all platforms as a matter of course. And by ‘we’ I mean everybody that has ever felt ‘othered’ by fashion, be that because of gender, race, class, financial status, body type, age, disability or simply having been denied a voice.”

Edward Enniful, Vogue Editor And Author of ‘A Visible Man’, 2022

He Also Reveals Details of His Own Extensive Personal Health Challenges, Coming Out, Being Thrown Out, And The Surprise of Later Discovering That Despite This, He Is More Like His “Military” Father Than He Ever Imaged.

Above all, A Visible Man is an example of Black excellence, power, success and perseverance. Not only does it give insight into the fascinating thought processes and experiences of Enninful; it acts as an inspiration to the next generation of young people driven to change their world for the better. And of Course He Is Not Ageist So That Actually Applies To Everyone…With The Style, Panache And Passion To Pull It Off!

Enninful Knows Anyone Who’s Anyone In The Fashion World And Even Anyone Who’s Anyone Who Is Not. He Has A Bevy of Showbusiness Beauties Giving Reviews And Forewords Encouraging Everyone But Everyone To Buy The Book. It Seems A Little Bit of A Mismatch Therefore To Discover That The Picture Selections In The Book Are Not As Plentiful As His Wonderful Story Telling And Tales of Inspiration And Perseverance. Given How Vibrant, Rich And Plentiful They Are In The Usual Production of The Magazine The Fact That Such Sumptuosness Is Not Reflected In The Book Is Somehing of A Disappointment. But The Fact Remains Its A Great Read And There’s Much To Love And Learn.

That’s The High Drama of High Fashion Dah’lings, There’s Always A Solution or Something Else Fabulous To Focus On. For Instance, Perhaps Get Your Hands On The Limited Hardback Edition of The First Ever Vogue Magazine Under His Editorship (Autumn/Winter 2017). Then It Was £75.00. No Doubt It Is Now Like Gold Dust Now. So Alternatively Why Not See The Catwalk Glamour In Person And Take In A Fashion Show. Or Learn How To Walk A Runway For An Instant Fix of Girl Power And General Confidence? One Can Learn Alot From Youtube Videos These Days. You Can Also Check Out Some More Fab Fashion Photos (At BritishVogue.Com) Female Collection. And (At BritishVogue.Com) Male Collection.

I Wish He Could Rule The World

GRAHAM NORTON, IRISH TV CHAT SHOW HOST, RADIO DJ, PRESENTER & FELLOW AUTHOR

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TheOrator.Press Editorial Team Book Review Feature ‘A Visible Man’. With Research & Contribution From Amy Neve (6th Form Media Student, Langley High School, Bromley)

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