The British Fashion Council (BFC) has today announced that Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue and the European Editorial Director of Vogue, Edward Enninful OBE, will receive the Trailblazer Award for his contribution to the fashion industry at The Fashion Awards 2023 presented by Pandora (TFA), taking place on Monday 4th December at Royal Albert Hall, London. TFA, organised by the BFC, is the primary fundraiser for the BFC Foundation and celebrate the role of fashion at the intersection of culture and entertainment, spotlighting creative talent and telling the stories of the year in fashion through the lens of purpose, excellence, and creativity. Enninful will be awarded for his trailblazing career as a stylist, editor, and creative director.
Enninful began his career as a model and styling assistant before being named as Fashion Director of i-D at age 18, making him the youngest person ever to have been named an editor at a major international fashion title. In his role at i-D, Enninful’s fashion stories pushed boundaries by fusing provocative elegance with a radical narrative and featured some of the industry’s biggest names. Enninful’s approach to storytelling was also seen in his work in American Vogue and Vogue Italia, where he was a contributing editor, frequently collaborating with photographer Steven Meisel. In 2011, he took over the position of Fashion and Style Director of W Magazine and restored the cultural relevance of the magazine. During his time at W Magazine, Enninful was awarded an OBE for his services to diversity in the fashion industry.
Enninful is currently the European Editorial Director of Vogue and was named the first black Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue in August 2017. In 2024, Enninful will be stepping into the newly appointed position of Editorial Advisor of British Vogue and Global Creative and Cultural Advisor of Vogue. In his six years as Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue, Enninful has challenged traditional beauty standards and transformed the fashion media landscape with his iconic editions including, Fashion Now (May 2023 – celebrated the rise of the African model), Reframing Fashion (May 2023 – featured impactful talents with disabilities in collaboration with accessibility consultancy, Tilting The Lens founded by Sinéad Burke), The New Front Line (July 2020 – honoured front-line pandemic workers), The New Supers (April 2023 – featured Jill Kortleve, Paloma Elsesser and Precious Lee) and The Supers (September 2023 – featured the original supermodels). Enninful’s covers also consistently feature and empower strong women and changemakers, including, Greta Thunberg, Judi Dench, Miriam Margolyes, Oprah Winfrey and Rihanna. In 2022, Enninful released his Sunday Times bestselling book, A Visible Man, where he shares the inspiring story of his journey from Ghana to British Vogue.
Caroline Rush, Chief Executive, British Fashion Council: “We are thrilled to honour Edward Enninful with the Trailblazer Award for his immense contributions to the fashion industry. Enninful is a highly influential figure, with his ground-breaking work and collaborations transcending fashion and profoundly impacting wider culture. A fierce campaigner for diversity and inclusion in everything he does, Enninful has shaped a new vision for fashion media through his tenure as Editor-in-Chief at British Vogue, not only in the UK but globally. We look forward to celebrating with him in December.”
The Trailblazer Award celebrates the very best innovators and creatives in fashion, whose work in the past year has significantly shaped the industry. Previous winners include Alessandro Michele, Kim Jones and Sarah Burton.
The Fashion Awards bring together a global community in London, the home of fashion creativity, to amplify leaders of change, celebrate excellence in creativity and support the next generation of creative talent. The event is the primary fundraiser of the BFC Foundation (Registered Charity Number: 1185152), which supports the future growth and success of the British fashion industry by focusing on education, grant-giving and business mentoring. In the financial year 2022/2023, the BFC remitted over £1.2m in funds to designers and scholars.
