Edward Enninful Discusses Diversity and Inclusion at Vogue

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Edward, I want to ask you because you have seen so many fashion brands, corporations, everybody is rushing to join the Black Lives Matter bandwagon. Adwoa said three years ago, as long as this is not a fad and just a moment. What does your gut tell you?

EDWARD ENNINFUL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, “BRITISH VOGUE”: I mean, my gut feeling is, you know, when it is a moment, yes, people would jump on. But for me, I feel that we need to sort of color over different companies. It’s not just enough having black models on your Instagram feeds or, you know, in magazines because that’s the norm now, but we need education, we need people behind the scenes who can get a seat at the table. We need, you know, (inaudible) for people. We need to find different ways of recruitment. For me, for this to last, people need to be behind the scenes. It’s imperative.

AMANPOUR: Is it extraordinary for you, because you said, you know, Misan Harriman’s cover had a whole black team behind him.

ENNINFUL: Yes.

AMANPOUR: We heard a lot three years ago when Tyler Mitchell did the first cover. He was the first black photographer to photograph U.S. “Vogue” and it was Beyonce done in a very sort of royal and amazing way. And I guess, is it extraordinary that it’s taken this long to have a black photographer do the cover? I mean, seriously?

ENNINFUL: Yes. I mean, it is extraordinary, I guess. You know, fashion is so sort of based — trend-based and so cyclical and, you know, what’s happening now and what’s cool now. But where “British Vogue” is concerned, I had Nadine Ijewere, the first black female photographer to photograph a cover, January, two years ago. So, for me, the conversation was natural and progressed naturally. I didn’t want to wait for things to happen, to jump on the bandwagon. I feel some, you know, companies (inaudible), and that’s the fear, but the ones who are doing real work are sort of doing all these things without — behind the scenes and not necessarily telling the whole world about it.