Top 76 Quotes & Sayings by Edward Enninful

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British designer Edward Enninful.

Last updated on December 22, 2024.

Edward Kobina Enninful is Ghanaian editor-in-chief of British Vogue and European editorial director of Condé Nast. He was appointed a fashion director of British fashion magazine i-D at the age of 18, a position he held for more than two decades. He subsequently held the positions of Contributing Fashion Editor at Vogue Italia and American Vogue, as well as Creative Fashion Director at W Magazine. Enninful was appointed editor-in-chief of British Vogue in 2017.

British - Designer | Born: 1972

Source: Wikipedia

Prince was not scared. The first time I heard someone sing about AIDS, it was Prince: 'In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name.' He was not afraid of taboos.

Edward Enninful

I felt like I grew up with Bowie. I never dressed like him, even though I did love the music, but consistently throughout my career he has been a go-to reference point: The suit from 'Young Americans,' or the gold Missoni-type looks of Ziggy Stardust. 'The Berlin Years' still influences me.

Edward Enninful

For me, fashion succeeds when it says something about the times we live in.

Edward Enninful

Being an immigrant and living in England, I feel like I lived in two worlds. There was the world that, when I was at school with my friends, was very English, and then I'd go home to another country, with exotic foods and colours. I have a sense of colour pairings, and that came from my background, I think.

Edward Enninful

People like me thought America was the best place to be creative, to be free to create, to have the freedom to be who you are.

Edward Enninful

I take random inspiration from everywhere.

Edward Enninful

The fashion industry needs to breed a whole different way of thinking. We need more diverse people working in all facets of the industry.

Edward Enninful

I want 'Vogue' to feel like a shop that you're not scared to walk into, one that's quite welcoming.

Edward Enninful

I don't think everything has to be new all the time. You don't have to have the latest designer all the time to look good. Just have things you're comfortable with, have key pieces that you can sort of reinvent over and over again, and always keep things that you really love for a while.

Edward Enninful

'British Vogue' is a great magazine with a legacy of creativity and innovation.

Edward Enninful

I grew up in an African household, so lots of chicken, lots of rice. We ate Jollof rice, a very West African dish.

Edward Enninful

I grew up in west London, but my dad wouldn't let me go to school there, so I went in south London.

Edward Enninful

I was really sheltered growing up, with six brothers and sisters. We played together all the time, and I was living in a fantasy world, like most creative people.

Edward Enninful

I feel like when it comes to the models, certain models are now like commodities in certain ways.

Edward Enninful

A lot of my friends, we all grew up sort of not very wealthy. And in England, whatever ends up being a negative, that's a positive.

Edward Enninful

In my work, I have always tried to push the boundaries of what fashion can do.

Edward Enninful

My mother was a seamstress, so I always grew up with her making clothes. I knew how to construct outfits. I knew how to sketch. I knew how to customise. But I could never imagine it as a career.

Edward Enninful

I grew up reading 'British Vogue' - I am so honoured and humbled to be taking up the mantle of editor.

Edward Enninful

I get nervous before every shoot. I'm really jealous of the people that can just rest on their laurels and say, 'I'm good; this is it.'

Edward Enninful

I learned that fashion was about more than fancy images. That there was a business side as well.

Edward Enninful

I like to play with contrast. It's about changing people's perceptions of people.

Edward Enninful

When you leave your house in the morning, however you dress is the way you want the world to see you.

Edward Enninful

I didn't know anything about the fashion industry until I met the stylist Simon Foxton on a Tube. I was 16, on my way to Kingsway College, and then my whole world opened up. Before that, like in every African family, you are meant to be a lawyer.

Edward Enninful

I've always been very fascinated by technology - the Internet, social media.

Edward Enninful

I'm just propelled by insecurity; that's what really leads me to want to do better.

Edward Enninful

The white T-shirt is like a blank canvas - eternally versatile.

Edward Enninful

I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Someone so blatantly challenging the ideas of race and gender and sexuality. In a way, it was comparable to David Bowie, except that Prince brought that to the black community.

Edward Enninful

I was very honoured to be awarded an OBE in 2016 for my services to diversity in the fashion industry.

Edward Enninful

When I was 18 years old, I moved into Neneh Cherry's house in Kensal Rise with Judy Blame and our friend Michael Boadi.

Edward Enninful

I realise I am stepping into the shoes of a hugely respected editor in the shape of Alexandra Shulman, someone who has chosen to leave at the top of their game with a legacy of 25 years of success.

Edward Enninful

Never forget that it sometimes takes a foreigner's eye to capture Britain most clearly.

Edward Enninful

There's a lot of research and time that goes into my shoots. I spend weeks on them, even for one picture.

Edward Enninful

I can't just go in and throw clothes at a picture. I still have to have some kind of an idea of a character, of who she is, where she's from. It's almost like playing a child's game. You have your dolls, and you create characters for them. Fashion indulged that in me.

Edward Enninful

I'm very proud of the world that's embracing all these different ideas of what it is to be diverse, in 2017.

Edward Enninful

You never know where inspiration is going to come from.

Edward Enninful

I don't think I'm in any way an icon, to be very honest.

Edward Enninful

I am black in a predominantly white industry, and I have been luckier than most.

Edward Enninful

I come from a family who didn't have much money but raised me to believe that money wasn't the most important thing in the world. We had enough; we were happy.

Edward Enninful

I'm so fascinated by the influence of social media on fashion. I've seen so many artists on Instagram, up and comers you would have never known otherwise.

Edward Enninful

My mother and father just taught me the basics: to be really kind, to really listen to people. I have never been one to put on airs and graces.

Edward Enninful

If you put one model in a show or in an ad campaign, that doesn't solve the problem. We need teachers in universities. We need internships. We need people of different ethnic backgrounds in all parts of the industry. That really is the solution: you have to change it from the inside.

Edward Enninful

I didn't grow up with money; I didn't come from a rich family. But what fashion gave me was an escape into a world of creativity: if I couldn't afford that Junior Gaultier jacket, then I'd get one from the market and customise it.

Edward Enninful

Music, for me, is as important as fashion. The first visuals I remember are Elvis Presley, David Bowie, New Romantics, and different punk bands.

Edward Enninful

My 'Vogue' is about being inclusive; it's about diversity. Showing different women, different body shapes, different races, class. To be tackling gender.

Edward Enninful

I think if you're really good at what you do, you can see outside the box.

Edward Enninful

Social media and technology are democratising and opening up fashion and the process of fashion for all - this has good and bad sides, but that comes with any change.

Edward Enninful

When you start out in the industry and things are tough, and you're not really making money, you question yourself: should I give up?

Edward Enninful

When I started in the nineties, a sample size was a 4 and a 6.

Edward Enninful

Coming from a family who put a lot of emphasis on academics, I always thought I was going to be a lawyer.

Edward Enninful

A queen does not wear clothes off the runways.

Edward Enninful

When I was really young, I had an afro and wore pressed jeans and argyle sweaters. In my teens, I moved on to ripped Levi's jeans, white T-shirts, and cowboy boots.

Edward Enninful

I'm really excited to see my vision for the 'British Vogue' team come to fruition.

Edward Enninful

Change always takes time.

Edward Enninful

I am definitely allergic to wheat. Every time I eat it, I feel awful.

Edward Enninful

I've learned to put a big value on having a life outside of fashion, and I think that's what's saved me, because the fashion industry can suck you in.

Edward Enninful

By people getting together and celebrating this idea of togetherness, great things can happen.

Edward Enninful

I can tell you, without diversity, creativity remains stagnant.

Edward Enninful

Social media is fine, depending on how you use it.

Edward Enninful

When I was growing up, David Bowie was my idol. I grew up in inner-city London, and he was from Brixton, which is even more urban.

Edward Enninful

The best photographers know how to light any color skin.

Edward Enninful