June 15, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (WINTER 2010)
I can remember the first time I ever went to Edward Enninful’s house in London. He was having a little party and I had gone over early with a friend to help him set up. When we got there, spread out on his coffee table were pictures of Kate Moss dressed in military jackets and fishnet tights. I didn’t know it at the time, but those were the very pictures from the, what I now consider seminal, God Save the Queen story, shot with Craig McDean, that was on the cover of i-D (I still have this issue in my library).
I was only 18 then and I was still at university. I hadn’t had a real job in fashion yet, and I had no idea what sort of powerhouse stylist and collaborator my friend Ed was. He never told me about his job, he never bragged about his accomplishments or about the people he worked with. He was always Edwina, the funniest and most generous person I had met when I first moved to London. And, now, almost a decade and dozens of seminal stories later, that’s exactly who he still is.
“LET’S START FROM THE BEGINNING. WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?”
“I was born in Ghana, but I grew up and was schooled in the centre of Ladbroke Grove, in London. I have beautiful memories of being in Ghana as an infant, but London really is my home.”
“AS A YOUNG MAN, WERE YOU AWARE THAT FASHION WAS AN INDUSTRY?”
“My mother was a dressmaker and had her studio at home, so growing up, fashion was in my life. I would help her fit clothes and I would sketch little designs with her. It was very different from the way I work now, but as a young man, fashion had a presence.”
“WERE YOU AWARE OF MAGAZINES AND THE VARIOUS ROLES REQUIRED TO CREATE FASHION IMAGES? I GREW UP IN MISSOURI, IN AMERICA, AND I HAD NO IDEA WHAT A STYLIST WAS.”
“The idea of magazines, styling and photography was something that came later. Growing up, I didn’t see fashion outside of dressmaking. When I discovered styling, during my teens, my creativity and imagination were invigorated. But the blueprint for styling wasn’t there yet. Since then, it has evolved into an industry where magazines and designers are paramount, and styling is completely different now from what it was when I began.”
“YOU ONCE TOLD ME YOU WERE FIRST DISCOVERED AS A MODEL ON A TRAIN.”
“It’s true. I was on the Tube going to college and I was approached by a man who said he was a stylist. It was Simon Foxton. It took a while for my parents to agree to let me shoot with Simon, and I was also very shy. But it happened – we shot with Nick Knight – and from there, I modelled for a while.”
“AND DID THAT TURN OUT TO BE GOOD TRAINING AS A STYLIST?”
“I always had ideas of how I wanted to wear clothes, and somehow my opinion became accepted. I wasn’t trying to convince people that I was a stylist. I think it just came naturally to me and I would end up dressing myself in the pictures. Soon afterwards, Nick introduced me to Terry Jones, the editor of i-D magazine, and that’s how I got my start in magazines…”
“WHAT WAS LONDON STREET FASHION LIKE WHEN YOU WERE A YOUNG MAN?”
“Growing up around Ladbroke Grove, the spirit of Buffalo was magical. This will always be London to me: people like Neneh Cherry, Ray Petri and Judy Blame were creating a look that London is still famous for to this day. Then came grunge, which I was also drawn into. For me, the idea of deconstructing how a person should dress rather than trying to create illusions of grandeur and glamour was very appealing.”
“AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF LONDON STYLE NOW? HAS IT GOTTEN BETTER OR WORSE?”
“It’s different now. In some ways there isn’t street fashion, as what’s being worn in London can be accessed so easily by the rest of the world, and vice versa. There’s much more of a cross-pollination of urban ideas now. The internet has created a global style. I don’t think there have been any trends as strong as Buffalo or grunge.”
“LET’S TALK MODELS: WHEN I WAS A YOUNG MAN, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO FIRST INTRODUCED ME TO BOTH NAOMI CAMPBELL AND KATE MOSS. ARE THESE YOUR FAVOURITE GIRLS?”
“I remember that! Baby Derek and the supermodels! Kate and Naomi are like family to me. Looking at my work over the years, there are so many collaborations with those girls. We were all in it together as babies and we grew up together. They will always be my favourite models. But there are many other models I love, too, from my eternal favourites, like Susie Bick, Kristen McMenamy, Alek Wek and Cecilia Chancellor, to my new favourites: Sasha Pivovarova, Liya Kebede, Jourdan Dunn, Lyndsey Wixson and Karlie Kloss.”
“I ADORE KARLIE KLOSS. WE’RE BOTH FROM THE SAME SMALL VILLAGE IN MISSOURI, SO I THINK OF MYSELF AS HER BIG BROTHER AND I SEE HER WHENEVER I GO HOME. I KNOW YOU HAD A SIMILAR CLOSENESS WITH ALEXANDER MCQUEEN – YOU EVEN BROUGHT HIM TO MY 19TH BIRTHDAY PARTY. WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF HIS PASSING?”
“I think the shock was very difficult. Lee was such a huge personality that to acknowledge now that he isn’t around is very difficult. For the circle of friends around him it is very difficult… In addition to dealing with the personal loss, you look around and see all your friends are suffering, too, and that only adds to the pain.”
“I JUST WENT TO HIS MEMORIAL IN LONDON, AND IT SEEMED EVERYONE WAS FINALLY IN THE FINAL THROWS OF THEIR GRIEF. ARE YOU OKAY WITH IT NOW?”
“There will always be a frustration that he is gone and that we can’t see him anymore. There are so many things that you have to deal with when you lose a close friend, personal things. You begin to analyse every conversation you had together and try to make sure that, throughout the haste of everyday life, you managed to portray the amount of love you hold for that person.
“LEE MCQUEEN ISN’T THE ONLY FRIEND YOU HAD KEPT SINCE THOSE EARLY DAYS. WHO ELSE DO YOU CONSIDER AN OLD FRIEND OF FASHION?”
“I have been working Terry Jones my whole career. He has been there with me from the beginning and saw something in me at a young age. I began working with Pat McGrath, Craig McDean and Eugene Souleiman on shoots in the early days, too: we were a group of kids with no money who were passionate about making pictures. They are people I still work with to this day.”
“MCQUEEN KNEW THAT FASHION WAS CHANGING, AND THAT TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET WERE GOING TO AFFECT THIS INDUSTRY.”
“Changes come quick and they come fast. We are constantly changing. I only take on board the changes that can improve the way that I work, however. I don’t try to be up to speed with every latest gadget, blog or software.”
“DO YOU SOCIAL NETWORK? ARE YOU ON TWITTER?”
“No. I have never followed anyone on Twitter. And I am not interested in Facebook. I spend enough time emailing and BBM-ing that if I introduced anything else into the equation I may never look up from my mobile again!”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RELATIONSHIP IS BETWEEN FASHION AND CELEBRITY?”
“If I am working with a celebrity, it’s very simple: they want to look good, they want to feel comfortable on set, they want to get the job done and go home to their families. Beyond the fashion element from being a stylist, you are also hugely responsible for the atmosphere on set, and if the atmosphere is light, then we can all get our job done a little easier and a little faster. But it’s funny: of all the celebrities I work with, there are only a few that I would consider close friends. I think that is important.”
“I HAVE ALWAYS ADMIRED HOW WELL YOU HAVE HANDLED THAT, EDWARD. I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT YOU ARE THE SAME PERSON, WHETHER YOU’RE AT DINNER WITH A BUILDER OR VICTORIA BECKHAM. THAT’S RARE.”
“The best compliment you could pay me is saying I always stay true to myself and never change. That is my biggest achievement in life.”
by Derek Blasberg
Photographs by Craig McDean
