Max Mara's Griffiths and Vogue's Enninful get honorary RCA doctorates

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
September 14, 2023

Ian Griffiths, Creative Director of Max Mara, and Vogue’s outgoing British Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful have been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art (RCA),

They’re two of six individuals to receive the awards and are highest recognitions the RCA can bestow on an individual and “celebrate exceptional accomplishments”.

Griffiths has been at the helm of Max Mara as Creative Director for 35 years, producing ‘real clothes for real women’, the motto coined by the brand’s founder Achille Maramotti.

He’s said to have "an innate sense of sophistication and encyclopaedic knowledge of fashion codes and history”, according to Fashionnetwork’s Editor-in-Chief Godfrey Deeney.

Griffiths will receive his doctorate on 19 September.

Meanwhile, the first black editor ever to helm a Vogue, Enninful took up his role in 2017 and also became European Editorial Director of Vogue in December 2020.

However, it was announced in June he would exit the posts, transitioning to a new “global advisory role,” allowing him to have “the freedom to take on broader creative projects.”

Enninful, who received his award from RCA Chancellor Sir Jony Ive Thursday (14 September) in a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank, said: “Education is a privilege to be part of; it offers a robust and rewarding foundation for life and I am forever blown away by the talents of the people who pass through the doors here. To be welcomed into the RCA's history forevermore is a very special moment.”