Vogue editor Edward Enninful: 'Imposter syndrome is what drives me'

On a Wednesday morning in 2020, the editor of UK Vogue was on his way to work. It was a hot day and London was quiet, that eerie stillness as people awkwardly came to life – it was Edward Enninful's first time in the office since lockdown. He was there to finish the September issue of Vogue - . The theme was "hope", and it featured a black and white sleeve of portraits of social justice activists, with footballer Marcus Rashford and model Adwoa Aboah sharing the cover. Enninful was excited. Full of hope, even. During the lockdown, he had hosted virtual roundtables in response to the murder of George Floyd and had crisis talks with black leaders from other industries, like Oprah Winfrey and the Duchess of Sussex, as protesters marched through the city. street below his apartment. They had talked and talked about “moving forward”. But as he approached the glass doors of Vogue House, a white security guard stopped him. "The deliveries go through the loading dock," she shouted. Enninful had two thoughts. The first, a groan: "Not today, Satan." The second: "I can do something about it."

It's just after 8am in the kitchen at Enninful, almost five years to the day since he has taken over the management of British Vogue, and two since being appointed European Editorial Director of Vogue, as part of a wider management team with Anna Wintour. Where Wintour's dawn routine involves a game of tennis and then professional hair and makeup, Enninful gets up at five to meditate. This year he turned 50 and celebrated his wedding with his partner of 20 years, Alec Maxwell. To her left, huddled against the kitchen counter, a modest woman-sized wedding cake waits to be put away. He sits on the edge of our vision as we speak, beaming with glamorous, oversized joy.

We're here to discuss his new book (this is the first time that I met Enninful, though I write an agony aunt column on the Vogue website), a memoir by the first man, first black, first working-class editor, and first gay of the magazine's 100-year history. After reading it (Oprah Winfrey tells me over email), "I see how everything that happened in his life shaped him to be the man he is now." A man, says Winfrey, who is "at the top of the fashion industry and always kind and sensitive to other people's feelings". The same month he was arrested by the security guard, Enninful was walking his dog (Ru the Boston terrier, who has over 17,000 followers on Instagram) with his friend, actor Idris Elba, explaining what he would talk about the book. "Oh, you know," he sighed. "A boy from Ghana making his way through a racist, classist industry, and the struggles along the way."

Elba stopped him. No, he said. No. “We see glamor and swagger,” Elba said. “We don't see a black person in trouble. Be sure to give us power and success. We need this. Enninful was surprised. He didn't feel particularly powerful or successful. He didn't feel like he had "succeeded" - the success of immigrants, mostly black people, he says, is fragile. But he listened, and the book he wrote contains power, glamour, humor, but also politics, vulnerability, and a bit of horror too.