Edward Enenfull, editor-in-chief of British Vogue, spoke about his biggest fear, loss of vision, a strained relationship with his father and addiction to alcohol in an interview with the BBC.

Edward Enenfull, whose autobiography comes out next week, also said he has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 14 years.

When asked if he was afraid of losing his sight, Vogue’s editor-in-chief replied: “That’s my biggest fear.”
Edward Enninful, who has had poor eyesight for most of his life, has had four surgeries in recent years for vision problems, including one for a retinal detachment.

“Anyway, I never had good eyesight. I have always worn 10 degree myopia glasses. …But what I also learned is… that you don’t need perfect vision to create. Here’s the irony: even though I have poor eyesight, I can still create images that resonate with people.”

Born in Ghana in 1972, the fifth of six siblings, Edward Enninful describes himself in his memoir Edward Enninful as a “shy, odd” child, bookish and obsessed with his imagination. His mother, whom he adored, worked as a seamstress, and from a young age he went to rehearsals with her.

His father was in the military, but due to political unrest, the family decided to leave the country.

They first moved to south London to live in his aunt’s small flat.

At the age of 16, Enninful was spotted on the London Underground by stylist Simon Foxton, who told him he had modeling potential.

He enrolled at Goldsmiths University at the urging of fellow model and future director Steve McQueen. But by that time he had started working for iD magazine.

After he confessed to his father that he dropped out of school to pursue his fashion dreams, his father kicked him out of the house. They did not speak for 15 years, but now they have reconciled.

“I found fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. I found that they are all equal in some way. It doesn’t matter if you were the head of the company or sleeping on the street,” he said.

Also speaking at BFI Southbank in London on the occasion of the publication of his autobiography, he said that taxi drivers do not stop in front of him because of his skin color: “My assistant has to call a taxi for me. I am a colored person for the whole world! This has never happened before.” At the same time, he also mentioned another incident at his Mayfair office where a security guard denied him entry, saying he had to use the back door of the building.

“These incidents do not touch me, but they make me not forget who I am, where I come from, not to have a high idea of ​​myself,” Eninful commented on the event.

In his memoir, the first man, the first black man, the first working-class refugee, and the first gay editor in the magazine’s 100-year history, describes his extraordinary journey into the world of fashion, where he found not only a home, but also the freedom to share the world with people. how he saw it.

The Visible Man is the story of a visionary who not only changed the industry, but also how we perceive beauty,” reads the description of the book, published by Penguin Press and Bloomsbury in the year Edward Enniful turned 50. married her partner Alex Maxwell.

“I felt that now is the right time. This is a year of change, I turned 50, I got married, and now my book has come out. I’m very excited,” he told Vogue UK last March.

Source: RES-EMI