The 51-year-old is reported to have been involved in a power struggle with the American Vogue editor over his attempts to make radical changes to the 130-year-old publication, including a push to make it “genderless”.
On Friday he announced to staff that he was leaving his role as European editorial director and editor-in-chief of the British magazine to take on a global advisory position at the publication.
During his six years at the helm, Enninful, the first male and first Black editor of the magazine, has championed diversity.
Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful and Naomi Campbell. Photo / Getty Images
Under his editorship, the British magazine featured a transgender model for the first time, Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet became the first man on the cover and Sinead Burke became the first visibly disabled person to feature on the front of any of Vogue’s magazines.
Enninful hit the headlines when he released an edition guest edited by the Duchess of Sussex, which she claimed changed the “superficial” focus of the fashion industry into pages of “positivity, kindness, humour and inclusivity”.
However, a biography of the Duchess has since alleged that they pair clashed over her vision and she even attempted to change the publication schedule.
Since taking the post in April 2017 there had been constant speculation he would replace Wintour at the helm of the global fashion publisher, with insiders saying he was the only “real threat” to her power.
In an email to staff, published by Vogue Business on Friday, he suggested he would be replaced by a “head of editorial content” rather than a new editor-in-chief.
The magazines in Paris and India have already replaced seasoned editors with a new digital-savvy generation.
Enninful told staff he had been discussing with Wintour and Roger Lynch, chief executive of the magazine’s publisher Condé Nast, how he could play a “broader” role in “enhancing Vogue globally”.
“I am excited to share that from next year I will be stepping into the newly appointed position of editorial advisor of British Vogue and global creative and cultural advisor of Vogue, where I will continue to contribute to the creative and cultural success of the Vogue brand globally while having the freedom to take on broader creative projects,” he wrote.
“To optimise my increased global responsibilities, and to give British Vogue the new focus it will deserve, we saw the opportunity to hire, in concert with our global editorial structure, a head of editorial content for British Vogue.”
A push for diversity
Enninful, whose career in editing began at i-D Magazine when he was 18, had once been a protege of Wintour, who hired him on American Vogue prior to him being appointed fashion director at W, another Conde Nast publication.
Vogue has previously denied rumours of a rift and Enninful thanked his former boss when announcing he was leaving his post as editor-in-chief.
A source at the publisher insisted the move “increased” his global responsibilities and is a “continuation of his long-standing relationship with Conde Nast, which stretch over 25 years”.
The Duchess of Sussex guest-edited an edition under Enninful which she claimed changed the "superficial" focus of the fashion industry. Photo / Getty Images
He took over the post in 2017 from Alexandra Shulman, who had been in the job for 25 years.
One of his first acts was to fire the magazine’s fashion director Lucinda Chambers, who had worked there for 36 years.
Since then Enninful has talked about his drive to increase diversity both among his staff and in print.
Last month’s British Vogue cover featured five disabled stars, leading Enninful to reveal the issue was “personal” as he lives with “invisible disabilities”.
The Ghanaian-born editor has told how he has problems with his vision and hearing as well as a blood disorder, sickle cell trait.
In recent days he also talked about how he knew he was gay from a young age, adding: “If my dad would have known, he would have slit my throat”.
In an interview, he discussed his childhood memories of growing up in Ghana and how his family were detained at Gatwick airport when he first moved to the UK at 13 because they did not have visas.
The family first moved to Vauxhall, south London, where Enninful said he experienced racial prejudice - including from the police before they settled in Ladbroke Grove.
He has said he has drawn on his own life experiences when editing the magazine and his “tenure here at Vogue has always been about inclusivity and diversity”.
The magazine’s circulation has dropped by around 5000 since 2016, before Enninful took over, standing at 190,249 last year.
