Monday 5 September 2022 11:55 PM British Vogue editor-in-chief claims taxi drivers will not stop for him due to ... trends now
British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has claimed he can’t hail a cab because taxi drivers won’t stop for him due to his skin colour.
Enninful, whose famous friends include Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, says he still has to ask his aide — who is not black — to flag a car down for him.
The Ghana-born fashion director is no stranger to alleged racial profiling.
A security guard at Enninful’s Mayfair offices was sacked in 2020 after refusing him entry to Vogue House. To add insult to injury, the guard told him to use the tradesmen’s entrance at the rear of the building.
The latest allegations come after Enninful, who turned 50 in February, revealed last week that he spent 14 years in Alcoholics Anonymous and was estranged from his father for 15 years.
The editor, who married his long-term partner Alec Maxwell earlier this year and will publish his autobiography on Tuesday, also opened up about a fear of losing his sight after having four operations on his eyes in recent years.
British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful (pictured on Sunday) has claimed he can’t hail a cab because taxi drivers won’t stop for him due to his skin colour
Enninful has alleged that taxi drivers racially profile him, forcing him to have his assistant hail cars for him.
‘My assistant still has to hail a taxi — despite the position that I’m in,’ he said, speaking at the BFI Southbank in London to promote his memoir, A Visible Man.
‘I’m a black man in the world; it wasn’t the first time it happened and it’s not going to be the last time.'
In 2020, Enninful had revealed he was a victim of 'racial profiling' at his own office.
The editor claimed he was refused entry to Vogue House in Mayfair by a security guard who apparently failed to recognise him.
He later confirmed that the security guard was immediately sacked by bosses at Conde Nast, the magazine giant which owns Vogue.
‘When those incidents happened, it made me realise: do not forget who you are, do not forget where you’re from and do not think you’re so amazing these things won’t touch you,' Enninful said at the promotional event, which was followed by a party at Claridge’s.
It was speculated that the Duchess of Sussex might attend, but she was notable by her absence. Meghan guest-edited Vogue’s bumper September 2019 issue.
Enninful, who is pictured with Michaela Coel on Sunday as he promoted his upcoming memoir, says he still has to ask his aide — who is not black — to flag a car down for him
Enninful, who was born in Ghana but grew up in West London, became the first non-white person to be appointed editor of Vogue in 2017.
His arrival prompted a mass exodus of staff, including deputy editor Emily Sheffield, a baronet’s daughter and David Cameron’s sister-in-law, who lost out on the top job.
After the former stylist succeeded Alexandra Shulman in 2017, he reportedly said his priority was to ‘get rid of the posh girls’.
He now says of Shulman: ‘She represented a different time. In 25 years there had only been 12 models of colour on the front cover.
'I just thought: “Let me bring in a new world, let’s create a magazine that was inclusive and everybody could see themselves in.” ’
Enninful has opened up about his life's struggles ahead of the release of his memoir, including his battle with alcoholism and how he had four operations on his eyes in recent years.
He explained that detached retina, among other issues, led to him having the procedures - and during the recovery time he was left living in the dark and looking at the floor for several weeks.
