Edward Enninful on His Fashion Design Debut for Moncler: “I Had to Go for It”

There was a lot going on at the Moncler City of Genius event this past weekend in Shanghai. When the French-born, Italian-owned outerwear brand presented the latest iteration of its fashion festival, just some of the headliners included Nigo, Rick Owens, Francesco Ragazzi of Palm Angels, and Lucie and Luke Meier of Jil Sander. Also on hand to deliver heavyweight cultural cachet were Donald Glover, A$AP Rocky, and Willow Smith. And there were plenty more designers and celebrities there to generate creative energy too.

Amongst them all, one of the most intriguing participants on the roster was Edward Enninful, a man who has done almost everything that can be done in fashion—although he has never, until now, designed a collection. The former editor-in-chief of our British edition and ongoing Vogue advisor started his career as a model when he was 16 years old. By the time he was 18 he’d been handed the role of fashion director at the great British style magazine i-D (currently in the midst of its own reinvention). He also styled some of the most influential editorials of the last few decades while collaborating with the late Franca Sozzani at Vogue Italia.

Before Enninful jumped on the plane to Shanghai this weekend, I jumped on a call with him to find out about his involvement with Moncler. In the pre-chat warm-up I wondered now that he has added “fashion designer” to his portfolio of hyphen-spliced vocations, what comes next? Enninful considered for a moment, then said: “Well, I still can’t sing.” Here is a cut of the rest of our conversation.

What was it like switching roles like this?

I’ve been a stylist forever: my whole career. So I’m used to working with designers. I’m used to going in and sharing my opinion and helping to shape the collection. But to work on my own in that position has been an incredible experience. To work from the conceptualization, through to the fabrication and the finished article—to be there every step of the way—is really something new and fascinating for me.

How did it start?

Well, I got a call from the Moncler team not long after announcing I was moving on from British Vogue. And I had always wanted to work with Moncler and Remo. In terms of what they’ve done with developing the model of collaborations within a brand, they’ve really moved fashion forward. And, you know, while I had already taken the decision to do pretty much nothing for a year, this was too good to be true—to have the opportunity to work with a company that I really respect and to shape something new—so for the sake of taking the chance to experience something I never had before I had to go for it.

So looking at the early images I can see that you’ve established your own personal monogram times year of birth branding, EE72…

Everything in the collection had to relate somehow to who I am in order to carry authenticity. From the very beginning until the end, I couldn’t just step in and out of the design process. Because to design things that I relate to, everything had to come from within.

I can easily imagine seeing you wearing this instead of your usual trad black suit as you sit at a show….

Ha! Well, I wanted to start from a base of neutrality, and I am known for wearing black clothes. So it had to be black. For my whole career I’ve worked with women’s wear, but this was a great opportunity to work with a team to create something that eventually could be modified for both sexes. I always like pieces that are kind of real, but also with a touch of a  dream-like quality.. And it was about creating a wardrobe for the most extreme weather. I was like, ‘what would you do in extreme snow or in extreme sandstorms or in extreme winds?’ Really, that’s how it started. Then I went into the archives and I looked at certain shapes that I love. There was a Karakorum shape that I was obsessed with. The pieces and shapes started from there, and then I added the details. I wanted to work with long skirts, but in technical fabrics. Everything is in technical materials, even the knitwear. And I wanted to make it light, and play around with layers.

There is a fair amount of texture and knitwear…

Underneath the outerwear they are wearing layers of knit pieces that I love so much. The whole idea initially was to create eight pieces but I thought I like this idea of a woman stuck in the elements and all she has are the clothes on her back, so that is why we did bags, we did water bottles, we did wallets—she literally carries everything on her back. You can see the peacoats in there, the organza skirts with the frills. It was, ‘how do you create a wardrobe that’s the perfect mix of technical and high fashion?’ And there was this idea of couture: sleeves are curved, backs are curved—to create something from a classic base, something women could wear to feel protected and to feel fabulous. It would have been easy to create a lot of unwearable pieces but that’s not really me. I wanted to create pieces that would last forever.

And now you face the interesting prospect of seeing your designs styled by others—is that something you relish?

Yes! And I would say just go for it—have fun! I’m really looking forward to seeing that happen.