Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Editor-in-chief of British Vogue and editorial director of Vogue in Europe; first man and first Black editor in Vogue's 100-year history, known for championing
On the island
Eight records
It reminds me of really happy days. And I remember my dad, who was very strict. One of the few times where he would let his hair down was he would have his friends would gather around in our lounge and my brothers would dance for him to this song.
It was a time of MTV. It was this new world that was just so magical.
Strange FruitFavourite
I remember hearing the song in a music class and listening to the words, and it was the first time I realized that being black really was … was difficult.
I had a gang, you know, I was a model, I was cute, and um we would go to Covent Garden, you know, to the Africa Center, and really clubbing was my life.
At this point, you know, I've been at ID, I was an established fashion director. I really sort of had come into my stride. America had come calling and Lauren Hill really represented a new freedom.
I had a musician partner, so he really influenced me where pop music was concerned.
I'm obsessed with Afrobeats. It's more than just music, it's almost like growing up in a country that was so removed from where I am today, really, in this music that I've carried with me in my soul, that's now the coolest music in the world.
Love Without Tragedy / Mother Mary
When I was going through my retinal detachments and feeling lost, feeling forgotten, because I didn't work for two years. Rihanna would always call to check up on me and I would play this song because the lyrics are so beautiful.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:10What part of being an editor do you find the most rewarding?
you know, when you're on a shoot, you know, you get there in the b in the beginning. It's what I call the search. You're trying to find the image, you're trying to play with hair, makeup, and then when that moment happens, when you're like, this is the character, this is where we're going, there's nothing like it.
Presenter asks
2:59You said that fashion can be a brilliant place to hide. What did you mean by that?
I was a total nerd growing up with my glasses and my afro. So, you know, I can produce images, really strong images that can contribute to change in the world, whether it's about diversity or whether it's shining a light on people who've been othered or whatever. It's so important. I can just be quiet in the background and really let the world see what I can do.
Presenter asks
6:40What sort of parent was [your father]?
My father was a disciplinarian. He didn't quite know what to do with me, you know, like my sketches. I'll have to hide them when I saw him. And I was very soft.
The keepsakes
The book
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson
It's about race in the world, hierarchy, the caste system around the world and how we survive.
The luxury
A pair of Alexander McQueen slippers embroidered with Rue and Alec
Luxury for me is personal, anything that's personal. I have a pair of slippers made by McQueen and on one side there's an embroidery of Rue. ... On the other side an embroidery of Alec, so they can be with me.
Presenter asks
13:28How did [the modelling encounter with Simon Foxton] happen?
A guy was staring at me, I remember, from Hammersmith all the way to Baker Street and I was so innocent, I was so naive, I just thought I'd done something wrong. And in Baker Street he got up and said his name was Simon Foxton, that he was a stylist for a magazine called ID and another one called Arena, and what I model. … So I went home and I told Mum, I showed her the card, and she said, No, no, no, not that business, it's full of funny people. … So but then, you know, I wore her down we I just wouldn't stop. And then eventually she called Simon and I was on a shoot a week later and that really opened up the fashion world.
Presenter asks
22:20[When you were appointed Editor in Chief at British Vogue,] what was the original vision?
I mean, I remember sort of looking around at my friends and seeing that they weren't reflected in the magazine. When I say my friends, I mean people of different races, religions. I keep harking on socioeconomic background, size, age. They weren't in the magazine. And for me, I just thought that's not even good business. So I just wanted to create a magazine that was inclusive, a magazine that was about diversity, where every woman would see themselves. And that was it. That was really the manifesto I had. 2017, nobody wanted it.
Presenter asks
28:44How were you able to reconcile [with your father after your long estrangement]?
I mean, you know, my mother had a stroke and my father had always been sort of this kind of ogre in a way. And I just watched him look after my mother for 15 years without care. Literally would be with her every day looking after her, putting her to bed, you know, taking her from and I just saw a different man. I just saw a man getting older who just loved his wife dearly. And that really softened me. And we'll go to my sister's house for sort of Sunday dinners and we'll talk more and more. And then when my mother passed, I was awarded an OBE and I had a party at the Marks Club. … Just watched him surrounded by all my famous friends and he was just so happy, dancing in his own world. So yes, we're really, really we're good now.
“I remember turning to my brother and saying, oh my God, it's all white people. I mean, we we'd never seen so many white people in our lives. You know, in Ghana, we were the majority. Everybody was black, you know, lawyers, doctors, the President. … And so coming to England was very different. And we went from essentially being a middle class family to being sort of not having anything, penniless.”
“I will never give up on people who need help.”
“I wasn't even thinking about it because I thought I'm never going to get this job because, let's face it, it's for middle to upper class white women.”
“I said to a friend of mine, I'm sure I'll be fired in three months, but I would rather be fired for what I believed in.”
“Even to this day when I hear it, it makes me want to do better.”