72 Magazine and the New Creative Frontier: Edward Enninful Ushers in a New Fashion Era

4-minute read                                                                                  Photo credit: Generated image using AI

INTRODUCTION

Within 24 hours of the commencement of New York Fashion Week Spring–Summer 2026 collections, 72 Magazine is set to officially launch on Friday, 12 September 2025, and the fashion world – and beyond – is already buzzing. With their first foray into the digital landscape, and more than just a new publication, this quarterly print and digital platform by Edward Enninful and his sister, Akua Enninful, marks a powerful shift and statement of intent in media, creativity, and cultural relevance. The announcement lands at a pivotal time, a week after American Vogue named Chloe Malle as the new Head of Editorial Content, ending Anna Wintour’s decades-long era and inviting natural comparisons.

But 72 Magazine is not about rivalry: it is about renaissance.

Edward Enninful, appointed as the first Black and male editor-in-chief of British Vogue in 2017, has already made history several times over. Now, with the birth of EE72 – his new media and entertainment company co-founded with his sister Akua – he is set to make it again. His tenure at British Vogue reignited the publication’s purpose, pushing boundaries with covers that felt more like cultural declarations than seasonal styling.

Unlike the formulaic tone that began to dull another legacy title – I am looking at you, American Vogue – Edward’s version of creative direction, storytelling and styling has always been one of radical elegance, boldness, intellectual stylishness, and inclusivity.

Will This Be a New Chapter for Fashion and Us All?

The launch of 72 Magazine signals something vital and much needed. It is a new frontier in publishing that speaks directly to today’s generation of readers, creators and consumers who crave both visual excellence and cultural substance while having an ear to the ground for the new digital waves of creativity on the horizon. Think less gatekeeping, more guidance. Less “unstimulating fashion takes for the few,” and more fashion forged in fire for the many.

In a strange way, the current socio-political climate in the USA helps 72 Magazine. With its conservative **coughs in a very right-wing**-leaning domino effect sweeping across American government departments and the corporate world, this is reflected in the uninspiring American Vogue covers seen of late, which lack depth in the creative conceptualisation and overall execution. To put it another way, it’s the vapid spectrum that at one end started in 2014 with Anna Wintour placing Kim K and that slavery “…sounds like a choice…” man on the front cover of American Vogue, and at the other end, in 2025, Chloe Malle choosing to place Lauren Sánchez on the front cover of the same Vogue edition to promote her exorbitant nuptials. A decline no one saw coming [not] **takes a deep Negro sigh**.

This is where 72 Magazine can steal a march. With excitement for this launch not just pulsating within fashion circles, young people – especially those fashion students still in school, college, university or just breaking into the industry – are hungry for access, representation, and knowledge. 72 Magazine could and should become their touchstone entry point into the fashion world, in the way hardcopy late 80’s / early 90’s Vogue editions were for my generation. Bodacious and captivating issues, stacked with engaging articles, features and front covers that made the models and the designers' clothes look like works of art. It was “hang it in the Louvre” for your handbag, as Vogue editions would fly off the shelf back in the day.

With most teen and young adult magazines of yesteryear now defunct and with many media platforms moving behind strict paywalls – as I write this blog, Vogue has announced that Vogue Runway will no longer be free to access… What perfect timing! - This is the challenge that 72 Magazine could answer: how to also stay accessible for future emerging fashion talent and the creatively curious without losing exclusivity?

I believe Enninful and EE72 are uniquely positioned to answer that call. If anyone can balance a subscription business model with cultural access and global inspiration, it is him. His creative portfolio, spanning decades and working with the biggest names in fashion, arts and culture, speaks for itself. From Italian Vogue to his iconic work at i-D Magazine and W Magazine, Edward’s vision has always pushed storytelling into uncharted, deeply human territory.

What It Means for the Culture

With that said, I hope that 72 Magazine is more than just content and that it becomes a cultural beacon that symbolises what you can achieve when you bet on yourself, a visual voice for the voiceless that reshapes fashion from its current identikit persona. And for those of us from the global African diaspora, it offers yet another platform that could potentially tell our extensive fashion stories in high definition. At House of Nyabinghi, we see this as a reflection of our own mission: to celebrate Black creativity, cultural depth, and fashion that moves you with meaning.

I salute Edward and Akua Enninful’s audacious move, which can only help to reframe what it means to be a cultural tastemaker and creative authority behind the scenes or front and centre in 2025 and beyond.

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