Edward Enninful On Linda Evangelista’s Return

When planning the cover of his September 2022 issue, Edward Enninful, British Vogue’s editor in chief and European editorial director, had a theme in mind: “Everlasting Linda.”

Linda Evangelista, the formidable beauty who ruled the ’90s runways as one of the original supers, had been on Enninful’s wishlist of cover stars since he took the helm at British Vogue in 2017 (“I called her so many times!” he says). Five years into his tenure, he can tick it off the to-do list, as the 57-year-old returns to the spotlight in spectacular fashion.

When it came to a photographer, Steven Meisel – Linda’s longtime collaborator – was the only choice. “They are such an iconic coupling,” says Enninful, adding that the pair’s friendship and connection (“No one understands the Evangelista magic better than Meisel”), contributed to a joyous atmosphere on set. “It was amazing,” Enninful confirms. “We didn’t even really need words to communicate.” It felt like a “heart-warming moment of fashion history”, he writes in his editor’s letter.

The sense of nostalgia on the shoot is reflected in Linda’s timeless cover story, which finds her swathed variously in Prada leather and Chanel tweed. There’s an element of the “retro”, Enninful says: “We looked at a lot of her older pictures, but we also wanted to move her forward.” As such, the heritage brands Linda wore so inimitably on the runway in the ’90s mingle with pieces from designers who rose to prominence during her hiatus, like Demna and Richard Quinn. “Linda has been away for so long, we wanted to include cool labels she hadn’t worn before,” Enninful explains.

Despite her absence – which she addresses in her candid conversation with deputy editor and fashion features director Sarah Harris in the September issue – Linda is no stranger to the cover of British Vogue. She was 23 when the late Peter Lindbergh photographed her for the January 1989 issue. The following year, she stepped in front of Lindbergh’s lens once more, this time accompanied by her fellow nascent supermodels, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford, for what would become one of the most indelible magazine covers of all time. This latest star appearance comes at a “special moment in her life” Enninful says. As Linda herself puts it in her cover interview: “I’m not done.”