He quit a Vogue job nobody quits. Can Edward Enninful build something bigger?

By Fiona Sinclair Scott, CNN

London (CNN) — Edward Enninful’s farewell cover for the March 2024 issue of British Vogue, marking the end of his six-year tenure as editor-in-chief, featured 40 very famous women: Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Cindy Crawford, Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell — the list went on and on.

Getting that crowd of Hollywood actors, supermodels, fashion designers and athletes in the same room for a group photo was a feat of complex calendar logistics requiring diplomacy and considerable industry sway.

Few editors could have pulled it off. But few editors could boast the career he’d had up to that point.

Enninful had worked in fashion publishing for decades before stepping into the top job at British Vogue. He started out, while still in his teens, at youth culture magazine i-D in London (where he became the youngest editor at a major fashion title), before moving on to roles at both Italian and American Vogue, then W magazine, in New York, before moving back to London to helm British Vogue in 2017. Over the years, he was instrumental in ambitious projects like Italian Vogue’s Black Issue in 2008 — only Black models featured in the magazine, which sold out within days — while also working as a stylist and consultant for brands including Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana.

Enninful announced his departure from the upper echelons of Vogue the summer prior to his final issue. The news, at the time, intrigued the fashion world. Why walk away from one of the industry’s top jobs? And what comes next?

The answers are interlinked. The decision to step down and go out on his own was a “now or never” moment, Enninful said in an interview in London just days before unveiling his next big move: a print magazine, titled 72, that he’s positioning as the “cornerstone” of his new media and entertainment business, EE72 (a name melding his initials and birth year).

“To leave was my decision, 100%… I realized that I was going to turn 50 and I needed a new act. So I spoke to Anna about it,” he said, dismissing (before asked) any suggestion that he left because of a rift with his former boss Anna Wintour, with whom he said he still occasionally texts. “I knew I had achieved everything I wanted at Vogue.”

While his fingerprints are all over the new magazine, Enninful has not appointed himself its editor-in-chief, instead asking his former Vogue deputy Sarah Harris to lead as editorial director. He’s cocooned himself with other highly regarded collaborators, friends and family including his sister Akua (co-founder and CEO) and his husband Alec Maxwell (chief visual officer).

At a time of plummeting advertising revenues, with legacy media under pressure to navigate a sustainable path forward, starting a new magazine and media company is a bold move. Just last week, Vogue US’s new head of editorial content, Chloe Malle, indicated there would soon be fewer printed issues of the — currently monthly — fashion bible. According to Puck’s fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman, starting a print title today is hard “because people don’t read magazines anymore. “Circulation is down and access is limited, especially in the US, where the newsstand has all but died,” she said over email. “You have to have a truly inspired concept.”

Surprisingly, the first issue of 72 carries no traditional advertising pages. “I just want it to be a love story to creativity,” explained Enninful. “I didn’t want to come into the industry just doing pay-for-play. What we’re creating is a new model, one that keeps us creatively free.”

So what is this new model? The privately owned company (backed by a few private investors) will center on its core platform, the website. Simone Oliver, the former Refinery29 editor-in-chief hired by Enninful as EE72’s head of content, called her approach “slow digital” — presumably a bid to push back against the aggressive content churn that many online outlets fall victim to. “From my first conversations with Akua and Edward, it was clear they weren’t interested in preserving the status quo,” Oliver said. “What they’re building has the potential to redefine what media and entertainment can look like in a way that’s both exciting and long, long overdue.”

The business idea, in a nutshell, is to partner with brands online, in print and through “experiences” or events. Magazine launch parties are being held in New York, London, Milan and Paris, each with their own brand partners (including Moncler and Google Shopping in New York and Levi’s in London). This isn’t a groundbreaking idea — plenty of legacy media companies work with brands to generate revenue in this way, Vogue and parent company Condé Nast included. What may be novel is executing these partnerships with the freedom and flexibility of a start-up. “I wanted to create something from scratch where you can be agile, where you can learn from your mistakes, pivot, all those things that you can’t do, maybe, when you’re in legacy media,” Enninful said.

Newness may also come by way of the business culture he builds around himself. In an industry that is often — and, sometimes, rightly — accused of being vapid and mean, Enninful and his team are emphasizing values like authenticity and empathy; he’s also a big believer in community and mentorship.

“I believe in togetherness, through the power of helping each other. When young people ask me, I say: ‘Have a group of people around you that you trust, that you can share ideas with, bounce ideas off.’ That’s important.”

While Enninful insists he has not launched a “magazine business,” it’s hard not to see the venture through that lens.

72’s inaugural cover star, Julia Roberts, looks resplendent in clothes by Phoebe Philo and Tiffany jewels (a look masterminded by the actor’s longtime stylist, Elizabeth Stewart). Roberts is interviewed by fellow actor George Clooney, no less.

The magazine, which can be bought on newsstands for $20, includes stories spanning topics far beyond fashion: Amy Sherald, the American artist who famously painted Michelle Obama’s portrait in 2018, shines a spotlight on young painter Tyler Ballon; a wellness feature discusses longevity; and a interior design photo essay features Oprah Winfrey, Stella McCartney and Priyanka Chopra, among others. There are classic fashion spreads on coats and must-have bags, intermingled with more surprising, niche stories, like a profile on the French design collective Inventaire or an interview with emerging photographer Jude Lartey. The last story reveals Marc Jacobs’ 11-part bedtime routine.

The extensive conversation between Roberts and Clooney comes in at over 6,000 words. Harris said that neither of the stars’ teams attempted to meddle with it. “I sent it to Julia and to George’s people for approval and they literally took out tiny, tiny, tiny bits,” she said, adding: “It was just very authentic and genuine, and their friendship is what really comes across.”

What was behind the decision to put Roberts on the cover? “So many women feel invisible in their 50s,” said Enninful. “And I feel like inclusivity is not just about race but also about age.”

“When we landed on her, it was a unanimous ‘yes,’” Harris said.

“Apart from being one of the biggest movie stars in the world, she’s her own person,” said Enninful. “She’s a mother. She’s ageless … she’s a real human being, despite all that.”

Magazine covers are supposed to get people talking. If the initial response is anything to go by, this was not Enninful’s most viral cover launch (his penultimate Vogue issue was also fronted by Roberts, and that Instagram reveal got over 70,000 likes, compared to the 11,000 received for his new 72 cover). Nor has it inspired many hot takes — another hallmark of a successful cover — though there have been some quiet grumblings about the overall look and feel.

Sherman, in her newsletter, wrote, “Enninful clearly wanted a splashy debut. And he could probably pull this off for several issues to come: maybe Oprah will be on the next cover, and then perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio. But I don’t quite understand why this cover isn’t more visually arresting.” Elaborating on the comments over email, she added: “It looks like the best version of an in-flight magazine. Enninful is capable of arresting visuals, but this was not ambitious enough.”

Despite the (albeit mild) criticism, Enninful has plenty of support behind him and a track record that cannot be undone with one cover. Gushing comments below his post came from a range of luminaries, from Naomi Campbell to Salmon Rushdie.

His team are all-in, too. For Harris, the decision to join Enninful on his new venture was simple. “The highlight of those Vogue years was working with him,” she said. “Everyone talks about inclusivity and diversity, but I think he really did pioneer that change, I think it really did come down to him… I didn’t think about it when he asked me. I was like, ‘I’m in. No brainer.’”

Oliver is equally effusive. “Working with Edward is energizing. He ideates and moves quickly, he’s a doer and super collaborative. He’s also accessible and in touch,” she said. “In my very first 1:1 with him, I asked, ‘What’s your preferred mode of communication?’ He casually said, ‘Just message me on WhatsApp.’”

He’s also resilient. Pushed on whether it was terrifying to take the leap from Vogue, he said, “People forget, I come from a country where I had to flee,” referring to leaving Ghana as a child, amid political upheaval, and immigrating to London with his parents (his father was an army general) and five siblings in the early ‘80s, a period he talks about in fascinating detail in his 2022 memoir. “Stepping away has never been an issue for me.”

Navigating Margaret Thatcher’s Britain as a young, Black, not-quite-out-yet gay immigrant proved to be character-building. Enninful thrived in his environment and lapped up every opportunity that came his way during those early years in London, including his big break: the chance to model for photographer Nick Knight. (The shoot for i-D magazine got him through the title’s door.)

His voice in the industry has, ever since, been loud and consistent when it comes to diversity and inclusion — even when it wasn’t fashionable. In 2016, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (or OBE, a high-ranking honor in the UK) for “services to diversity in the fashion industry.”

In Enninful’s opening letter for his new magazine (a space normally reserved for the editor), he writes, “Throughout my life, I have witnessed how self-expression and diverse ways of seeing can enhance the cultural conversation. We are launching 72 at a pivotal point in our public discourse: in a time that calls for creativity’s ability to connect us; when we hanker for the joy it inspires, and the inclusivity it generates. We envisioned this magazine as a cultural community for open minds, where radical thinkers, new artists and underrepresented voices align with icons and legendary visionaries… We want it to be an invitation to come together, work together and create something new — something better — together.”

It is too soon to say if the EE72 team will make good on their promises of doing something genuinely new and transformative. But if anyone is taking bets on who will shape the future of fashion publishing, Enninful is surely in the running.

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