British Vogue editor Edward Enninful announces upcoming memoir, A Visible Man

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Edward Enninful, the editor-in-chief of British Vogue, has announced that he is releasing a memoir.

In a post to Instagram on Tuesday 7 December, Enninful said he hopes that sharing the story of his life will “show how anyone can make change in the world”.

Enninful became i-D magazine’s youngest ever fashion director when he was appointed to the role at age 18.

He went on to become a contributing editor of Italian Vogue in 1998, before also working for US Vogue in 2006.

In 2017, he was named the first black editor-in-chief of British Vogue.

“I think it would be fair to say that since I started working in fashion some 30 years ago, as a 16-year-old model turned fashion editor from West London at the tail end of the 1980s, I have barely paused for breath,” Enninful said.

“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.”

For his first issue of British Vogue, Enninful chose mixed-race model and feminist activist Adwoa Aboah as the cover star.

At the time, he told the BBC his Vogue “is about being inclusive” and “showing different women, different body shapes, different races [and] different classes”.

Enninful, who is the European editorial director of Condé Nast, said the fashion industry had “slowed a little” during the pandemic, which had allowed for inclusivity and “beauty in all its forms” to become the top of its agenda.

For its July 2020 issue, British Vogue released three covers – each of which featured a different essential worker who at the height of the pandemic, had continued to go to work.

They included a train driver, a midwife and a supermarket assistant.

“I’ve been extremely blessed with a platform to lead some of those conversations,” Enninful wrote on Instagram.

“I wanted to share my own experiences from childhood to the offices of Vogue and show how anyone can make change in the world, with a little passion, perseverance and a pure heart.

“I’m so excited to bring my upcoming memoir to readers in September 2022. 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.”

The memoir, titled A Visible Man, will be released in September 2022.