Is Edward Enninful leaving British Vogue of his own volition or did Anna Wintour push him out? According to Vogue, Enninful is moving up the corporate ladder; according to a fairly spurious report from The Sunday Times, Enninful "shot for the moon and lost."
The only confirmed truth here is that Edward Enninful would depart his position as editor-in-chief of British Vogue in 2024 to instead transition to the much wordier roles of "editorial advisor for British Vogue and global creative and cultural adviser for Vogue."
"[Anna Wintour and I] have been discussing how I can play a broader role in enhancing Vogue globally," Enninful said in a June 2 internal memo.
The Times' report, published on June 4, paints a very different picture. It suggests that Enninful, who got the British Vogue job in 2017, was angling to replace Wintour as Vogue's #1.
Enninful, a true fashion trailblazer with a storied styling career, was both the first male and Black editor-in-chief at Vogue, beloved by Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and scores of other world-shaping women for his sharp eye and even sharper vision for the fashion’s idealized future.
Enninful would go on record about the lack of body diversity on runways one month and, the next, explain why he was willing to turn down advertisers that didn't share his progressive ethos.
Thanks to Enninful, British Vogue became what The New York Times called, "the fashion magazine that can't be missed."
The Sunday Times’ speculated that Wintour, who has helmed Vogue for 35 years, didn't appreciate Edward Enninful's plans for the brand, which included reshaping Vogue as more gender neutral, according to The Sunday Times’ report.
Consider some of Enniful's historic firsts: Vogue's first male cover talent, Timothée Chalamet; Precious Lee, Jill Kortleve and Paloma Elsesser became the first trio of curve models to cover British Vogue; British Vogue published its first-ever Braille issue.
But Enninful’s mortal sin was, apparently, his ambitions to replace Wintour as the de facto leader of Vogue, who shoots down retirement rumors like she does would-be Met Gala attendees.
Edward Enninful “did not believe he would have to play second fiddle for much longer to a 70-something woman who, to him, represented so much that had been wrong with the industry for far too long,” one of Enninful's friends told The Sunday Times.
However, insiders speculate that Enninful may have flown too close to the sun by making it known that he was actually seeking to succeed Wintour if she ever retired, thus becoming the most prominent singular voice in fashion.
As a result, Enninful and Wintour’s already tenuous relationship chafed, The Sunday Times' sources claim.
Enninful would decline to be interviewed alongside Wintour, for instance, and the two editors held separate Vogue parties as their cold war reportedly grew frostier.
Those same sources say that Enninful's newly reconfigured Vogue position is proof that Wintour has again come out victorious.
Not that Enninful is suffering, by any means: Enninful reportedly said that he "can make a lot more money outside Condé Nast than in it" and is being courted by companies like Apple and Spotify. Additional rumors suggest that Enninful’s best-selling memoir, A Visible Man is currently being optioned in Hollywood.
Vogue, Condé Nast, Anna Wintour, and Edward Enninful haven't publicly commented beyond the June 2 internal memo.
Not that that's stopped anyone from picking sides, and why should it?
