The soft ways of Edward Enninful
By Suzy Menkes
Published: February 9, 2009
LONDON: Edward Enninful is fashion's gentle revolutionary. Last week he was in India, styling a shoot for American Vogue. By Valentine's Day, he will be back from Goa and at his home in England for the launch of an iconic edition of the magazine i-D, where he has worked as fashion director since age 18.
The great British models of this and previous generations have all been captured by the photographer Solve Sundsbo for the March i-D - from Twiggy, the original 1960s waif, though the aristocratic Stella Tennant, bad-girl duo Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, to the punk-revival Agyness Deyn.
"The confirmations were instant - it was about doing something for England, and models have been so faceless - British models always have personality," says Enninful, 34, who presented Terry Jones, i-D's founder and editor in chief, with a tough choice. Who to put on the cover, one eye closed or covered in the magazine's style, for this "Best of British" issue?
Enninful is a "stylist" - a slippery description that can mean fashion coordinator, image director, gofer at photo shoots or, more recently, a person who reinvents a brand or repositions a designer's direction on the runway.
If that sounds like a power trip, Enninful is the first to underline the importance of team work, insisting that the days of a bossy stylist are over.
"If you are lucky, it's 50/50 - if people respect what you do," says Enninful. "You work with the designer, but you are dealing with the whole machinery. You have to try to change, add or subtract, without making it all about yourself."
The Norwegian-born photographer Sundsbo says that Enninful's approach is not to come in with a "bombastic statement," but with "very soft ways."
"What Edward is good at is that he keeps creativity and spontaneity, but a certain element of class," says Sundsbo about the stylist's work on both sides of the pond.
"He is open to things," says the photographer. "Not too finicky and chic like the French and not commercial like Americans. He's not a bully and he is always good-humored - and he's subtle in everything."
Aside from the great body of work in a decade and a half at i-D, Enninful is the soft power behind the throne of Vogue editors, their editorial shoots and of designers' advertising campaigns such as the current Lanvin images. He is also a force behind runway shows.
"Edward has a very fresh approach, which I like - and I don't like stylists," says Donatella Versace. She used Enninful to bring a new elegance and calm to her January men's show in Milan, although the softly softly approach was arguably a little too subtle for the once brash brand.
An edgy elegance is the British stylist's trademark, from his Vogue Italia cover of a model camouflaged with exotic prints, photographed by Steven Meisel, to the same magazine's historic "black" issue last summer.
"I am black in a predominantly white industry, and I have been luckier than most," says Enninful, whose family roots are in Ghana and whose childhood memories are of his seamstress mother in London sewing the vividly patterned colors and fabrics for British-African friends.
The stylist, who was spotted on the train that took him from his "Notting Hill ghetto" to school, started modeling at age 15.
"We British have to customize our clothes, we have to be more creative, informing who you are - and I am still obsessed with the streets," says Enninful, who fascinated Jones and his wife Trisha by wearing jeans dipped in paint and by "slashing" clothes for a memorable i-D photo shoot.
For Vogue Italia, the stylist was "determined to show how chic black people are," giving a touch of class to the upcoming model Jourdan Dunn and the veteran Campbell, who are both also in the i-D shoot,
"He has a lot of class," says Franca Sozzani, Vogue Italia's editor in chief. "He never chooses from a collection what is for a fashion victim and never something that is vulgar. And Edward focuses on a story, he knows that Naomi is not the same as Linda. He has a very good eye."
Now Enninful is in international demand, his younger sister Akun acting as his agent. But his vision is still steeped in the street smarts of young England. He wanted, for i-D, to bring out the character of each model, like "rock 'n' roll Kate" (Moss) as a mature woman and now fashion designer. Then there are the "ageless" British models, symbolized by Twiggy and by Grace Coddington, who moved from modeling to creative director at Anna Wintour's American Vogue.
"I went though a great thought process - we didn't want clichés and stereotypes," says Enninful, who believes that the model era of characterless, Central European waifs is over.
"With i-D, what Terry encourages you to do is to bring out personality," says the stylist. "It's not about gloss - it's about letting character shine through."
Jones tries to define Enninful's intangible skills.
"Edward has it in the blood," the magazine boss and mentor says. "He has an ability with people and to spot talent. And we will always be there to support him."
