by 
Editor is a sacred position at Vogue, even if the moniker “head of editorial content” has been somewhat diluted by British Vogue’s latest holder. So significant, in fact, that trends and eras of style have often been defined by the sweeping statement made by a new name in charge with their first edition.
Chioma Nnadi’s Vogue debut, released Thursday, features singer FKA Twigs posing atop a London taxi wearing a Loewe dress that recently went viral after its square front panel was compared to a Post note -it. Nnadi’s choice of this image on the cover will only add to the meme status of the design.
“As an editor you want every cover to be brilliant,” says Justine Picardie, former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and one-time director of Vogue. “The coverage on the newsstands is very important. With big monthly magazines, you get a lot of exposure – but now you’re getting just as much judgment on social media, which is very difficult.”
Picardie remembers how she wanted to “do something fresh and new while looking back at the wonderful Bazaar imagery of the past”.
Nnadi was appointed at a time when Anna Wintour has consolidated power at the Condé Nast publishing house, where the heads of the magazine’s non-US edition now report to her. “This will be signed by Anna Wintour, who was Chioma’s advisor and mentor,” Picardie explains.
This is how four ‘first Vogues’ over the past 36 years have defined the era they were created for…
Anna Wintour – the high-low look hits Vogue in 1988
With her fresh bob and her strict uniform of fitted midi dresses and Manolo Blahnik heels, Anna Wintour might not immediately strike you as someone who probably brought jeans to Vogue, but her editorial in the American edition began with a cover that that procedure and procedure left. a more playful version of the magazine was introduced.
The November 1988 issue featured Israeli model Michaela Bercu wearing a black Christian Lacroix couture jacket adorned with a colorful jeweled cross. Impressively, this ultra-precious piece was styled with a pair of affordable tailored jeans and Bercu looked stunning with her bulging stomach, her ‘I got this way’ wavy hair and laugh lines around her eyes.
“Michael was on holiday back home in Israel and had put on a bit of weight. That is not the point. In fact, it just reinforced the idea of taking the grandeur of couture and throwing it playfully at the real world and seeing what happened,” Wintour later wrote of the cover. “What any of us expected was to put that picture on the cover, at least the printers of the magazine, who cried and asked in surprise, ‘Has a mistake been made?’ I couldn’t blame them. It was so different from the elegant, studied close-ups that were typical of Vogue covers at the time. This one broke all the rules.”
In retrospect, the cover marks the beginning of the effortless ’90s chapter that was to come.
Alexandra Shulman – a woman of truth in 1992
When Alexandra Shulman was appointed editor of British Vogue in 1992, her appointment was met with some uproar. A report in the Guardian asked “just who is this woman?”, adding that “she is not something called “fashion”. The same piece argues that before Shulman got the job, the clothes appearing on the fashion pages were “too silly or too expensive”.
So it seemed like a clear statement of intent when Shulman’s front cover showed a woman in leggings, a shirt and low heels standing next to a column in what could be mistaken for an elevated holiday scene.
Years later, it was one of the cover lines that seemed to remain the most resonant detail. In her book Inside Vogue: Diary of my 100th Year, Shulman recalls how: “One young woman noticed that the cover line of my first issue, April 1992, read ‘Do we still need feminism?’ and asked me if I considered myself a feminist.”
Edward Enninful – the fashion purist in the time of Brexit, 2017
After 25 years at the helm of Vogue, Shulman stepped down in 2017 and Edward Enninful, the London-born son of Ghanaian immigrants, became editor. Her version of the magazine grappled with the weight of fashion history and the reality of post-Brexit Britain.
Model of the moment Adwoa Aboah starred on a cover that could have come straight from the Vogue archives of the 70s or 80s with her turban, stunning jewelery and heavy, glossy make-up. “Edward’s first cover was very beautiful with a very vintage feel of Vogue at its most classic,” notes Picardie. “When you become an editor, you have to take on the legacy of your publications and with Vogue that goes back to the end of the 19th century.”
Adwoa’s image was accompanied by a roll call of diverse British stars, from Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie. “This is a country built on tradition, but – like fashion – a country that is forever changing,” Enninful wrote in his editor’s letter. “The time seemed right to redefine what Vogue can mean today. To open it up. So I present to you the British Edition: a tribute to our country and to a group of people who represent it brilliantly, at home and on the world stage. Whatever your views on Brexit, we can certainly all agree on one thing: we are a talented bunch.”
Chioma Nnadi – the Gen Z sweetheart of 2024
British Vogue’s new editor, Chioma Nnadi, has earned praise for her cool, eclectic style and down-to-earth persona. She has just returned to her hometown of London after twenty years living in New York so the cover line “Fashion is coming home” feels as much a personal message as a false nod to the football song .
“It’s a true statement,” says Picardie. “She’s doing something different by going out. I love covers shot out of the studio and it’s very London with the taxi. Your credit coverage [the designer you chose for your subject to be wearing] It’s very important so it’s remarkable that she chose Loewe designed by Northern Irish designer JW Anderson.”
Of all the recent Vogue debuts, this is the only one with a recognizable personality from outside the fashion world. “It is significant that Chioma has chosen a musician rather than a model,” says Picardie. “FKA Twigs is someone with a real story to tell”. She also appeals to Gen Z readers who are desperate to attract titles like Vogue, whether they buy a physical copy of the magazine or see the shoot content on TikTok.
The cover lines, designed to entice readers to buy the magazine, trace a story about parenting in an open marriage; “It’s interesting to have a nod to parenting that appeals to older readers,” says Picardie.
Nnadi describes FKA Twigs as “an artist who represents the ideal of British eccentric modernism: she is a shape-shifter who rejects conformity and embraces the true joy of clothing.” In her letter from the editor, she also says; “Although much has changed in the twenty years I’ve lived in the United States, the beautiful, creative energy of London – an energy that cannot be found or imitated anywhere else – remains undiminished.”
In a context where fashion insider gossip has swirled about the globalization of Vogue, Nnadi’s first cover could not feel more rooted in London.
