Six years ago, Edward Enninful was incandescent with professional success. In private, he was terrified as a shock diagnosis threatened to shake up his world.
dward Enninful’s stellar career began in 1990 when, at just 18, he became the fashion director of the influential, London-basedmagazine, which helped fuel the grunge movement of the early ’90s. By 2011, he’d jumped the pond to take over the style directorship of Condé Nast’s prestigious but ailing; the next year, the title recorded the biggest year-on-year ad-revenue gain of any fashion title in the US.
A champion hypochondriac, I knew I had to get back home as soon as possible. There was a violent storm coming and some flights were already getting cancelled, but my sister Akua managed to get me on one of the last ones. Huddled in my plane seat, slashes of black crowded my vision. I could feel my world darkening by the hour. My optician in New York got me in for an emergency appointment and told me that I had holes in the retina of my right eye.
A creative person’s currency is their “eye”. I was blessed with creative vision, yet never had good eyesight, but the thought of losing it entirely brought with it pure existential terror.Seven Deadly Sins A creative person’s currency is their “eye”. I was blessed with creative vision, yet never had good eyesight, but the thought of losing it entirely brought with it pure existential terror. If I couldn’t see, I couldn’t work. Would I become as invisible to the world as the world would become for me?I called a doctor in London I had on speed dial. I was willing to pay whatever it took to move as quickly as possible, and they got me into surgery that night.
The synchronicity and randomness of people-watching in a city was part of my daily joy. Suddenly, I was in isolation, proofing photos through my good eye, then resting, unsure of how much longer the bad eye would even see at all. I was convinced it would happen to both eyes. It was petrifying.In my unmoving terror, I listened to music nonstop. I needed some outlet for the emotional fireworks, something to cling to that would remind me of who I was in the face of so much possible erasure.
I knew I needed to find a healthier equilibrium, even if only to keep producing work that I loved at the highest level possible.
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