As Vogue editors go, Chioma Nnadi is decidedly low-maintenance. She describes herself as ‘scrappy’. Her voice is soft. Much of her wardrobe comes from charity shops and eBay and she never gets a manicure. ‘I don’t get my nails done and that’s just how it is,’ she shrugs as we meet at Vogue’s new London office building, the Adelphi. ‘I can’t justify the time when I could be doing something else.’
Nnadi looks effortlessly put together, but her signature sartorial patchworks actually do require some intention to achieve. As she talks through her outfit, it is clear that she has both considered and enjoyed coming up with her combination of the day – a studded Gucci men’s jacket, bought secondhand, new cherry-red Gucci heels, an old burgundy ribbed knit and a pair of Adidas three-stripe joggers that she handles as if they were silk.
Nnadi doesn’t leave the house without striking that perfect fashion juxtaposition – old and new, the eye-wateringly expensive and the pennies-cheap, hot young names and urban sportswear. It all culminates in a truly original and trendsetting look (the Adidas Sambas revival? She re-wore them first).
Nnadi has seen a lot of catwalk shows in her two-decade-long career, the last 13 years of which she had spent at American Vogue (most latterly as head of its website) – where she earned a reputation for being Dame Anna Wintour’s protégée. But Nnadi was born in London, studied at Manchester University and started her career at London’s Evening Standard newspaper, so taking on the role at British Vogue has been something of a homecoming. It’s the most powerful job in UK fashion and she’s doing it her way – although she admits that working in Wintour’s glossy offices did have some impact on her eclectic style.
‘In the beginning, I do remember going to a Manolo Blahnik sample sale and thinking I just have to get with it,’ she laughs – but admits it didn’t take long to realise she was more comfortable in her signature trainers. ‘I felt like I had to try to be a little bit more polished. People get daily blow-dries, they pay attention to those details.’ Wintour, famously, rises at the crack of dawn to maintain her coiffed bob. Nnadi returns to London as she was – although shares that she reluctantly corrected her ‘snaggletooth’ with Invisalign. She has, it seems, kept her enthusiasm for British wit over American sheen. ‘I love that in London you see eccentricity and personality on the street,’ she muses.
Her wardrobe is on track to becoming a serious fashion archive – if only she could gather the summer half, which is still in New York. ‘It’s in disarray right now,’ she admits. ‘I wasn’t ready to pack for everything.’
She collects vintage pieces from around a dozen names including Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Gucci, Junya Watanabe and Phoebe Philo during her era at Céline. She’s adding to it constantly, hitting her favourite vintage shops every time she travels for fashion month – James Veloria in New York and Thanx God I’m a V.I.P. in Paris.
Her vintage style is rooted, though, on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road. Nnadi spent her formative years in the centre of 1990s London, raised with two brothers by her Nigerian father Nwamadi Nnadi and Swiss-German mother Dolores Nnadi. Her parents were a government worker and a nurse respectively – she had no family connections in the fashion industry and no way of buying the designer labels she could see in magazines.
‘I think the first designer things I ever bought were a D&G vest top and a Moschino belt,’ she says. ‘That was a big deal to me and I put those pieces to work, styling them in every outfit. I couldn’t afford designer, so vintage became a way for me to put together looks that were a nod to the things I was seeing in the magazines or on my favourite musicians.’
Jean Paul Gaultier skirt, Vivienne Westwood T shirt, Balenciaga bag
She describes seeing Björk ‘in the wild’ as a ‘game-changing’ influence on her decision to pursue fashion journalism rather than medicine. ‘Björk lived in Soho and I used to see her quite regularly,’ she explains. ‘She was always wearing these great looks with amazing hair and different trainers. I was obsessed – the first time I went to her concert I cried. So seeing her out, turning sportswear into streetwear… it was heaven to me to get those sightings.’
During her English degree in Manchester University Nnadi said she realised that London was ‘not the centre of the world. I was so into music and Manchester was the place to be. I was really into the rave scene there, the style was so cool.’ After The Evening Standard, Nnadi moved to New York for jobs with indie magazines Trace and The Fader. She first met with Wintour in 2010 to interview for the job of fashion writer at American Vogue. She was called in at short notice and wore jeans – ‘controversial’ – with a blazer.
It was Wintour who suggested that Nnadi should apply for the top job. As The Devil Wears Prada will tell you, it’s one that ‘a million girls would kill for’, but Nnadi says she had no game plan to get it. This time she didn’t wear jeans for the interview. ‘It wasn’t like I had to [introduce myself] because my colleagues have seen the entire range of my style,’ she says. ‘They knew what to expect.’
Nnadi describes several rounds of high-stakes interviews, including with Wintour and a particularly memorable meeting with her British Vogue predecessor Edward Enninful, which really made her sweat. ‘I remember having an interview with Edward when he was in New York,’ she says. ‘For that I wore a Molly Goddard neon-pink cardigan and an Argyle Miu Miu shirt, and a long Zara skirt. It was a really hot day, sweltering, and I was nervous, even though he knew me too already. We met at Cipriani, we had tea. He was fine, but yes I was sweating.’
Nnadi will be back in New York next week for the Met Gala – this year’s red carpet costume theme is ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ and the corresponding exhibition will mount Elizabethan bodices next to modern-day couture. In previous years she has commissioned bespoke outfits by new talents Claire Sullivan and James Garland, a tactic she confirms she is repeating.
‘Dressing for the Met is a big deal,’ she says, ‘It took me a few years to even brave the red carpet. I always feel that as an editor, I’m there to work – I’m not a celebrity. But when you’ve had an outfit custom-made by a young designer, you have to give it the publicity – it’s the most watched red carpet for the fashion world.’
She’s still getting used to being a public personality, she admits. ‘I like dressing for myself,’ she nods. ‘Getting dressed up like that is a whole other thing. You don’t necessarily have to love both, but I’m learning to.’
Chioma’s 5 personal style rules:
Play with colour
‘It doesn’t matter what brands you are wearing, if you put interesting colours together you will always make a statement. My only rule is that I rarely wear all black.’
Molly Goddard dress, Tory Burch coat, Bottega Veneta bag, Manolo Blahnik shoes
Set alerts for vintage
‘To get the pieces that I want, some of which might come up quite rarely, I will set alerts on websites like The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective and eBay.’
Have a standby dress
‘I like to have a dress ready in case I need to go somewhere – I hate the feeling of having nothing to wear. An event always comes up, it never goes to waste.’
Rethink your neutrals
‘I have a pair of silver Manolo Blahnik shoes that I wear again and again. Silver shoes are equivalent to basic black ones for me.’
Vintage Vivienne Westwood, sourced from One Of A Kind
Earrings can make the difference
‘I’m not a jewellery girl per se, but now and again I like to use earrings to completely change a look. My Simone Rocha ones add a strike of a different colour to an outfit.’
Inspired by Chioma...
Jacquard knit cardigan, £74.99, Rokh x H&M; Satin wide leg joggers, £70, Adidas Originals; Herringbone blazer, £59.99, Zara
Prada coat, Gucci Men’s sweater, Martine Rose jeans, Chanel shoes
Clockwise from top left: Lola bag, £490, Molly Goddard; Flower earrings, £250, Simone Rocha; Colour socks, £3.90, Uniqlo; Green snake sandals, £240, Martine Rose for Clarks
Simone Rocha top, Jacquemus trousers, Alaia heels
Cashmere polo top, £245, Guest in Residence; Leather jeans, £350, Jigsaw
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