What is an editorial and editorial image?

Editorial images are made for publication in magazines, they usually accompany a body of text and are used to illustrate a story. Editorial images can also be used on their own and may only be accompanied by a title or brief body of text, for example the images may relate to a word or a colour, this will be what makes the editorial sync together and fit well.
Fashion editorials are usually used to showcase the clothing or makeup, they can be edgy in their concepts and not show the story in a traditional way. In a sense anything goes with editorial images, as long as they relate to the text or the story intended.
Editorial images can tell a story, or they may not have any imminent story and the reader will have to think and look closer to reveal the story/message intended. These images can edgy in the way the models are posed, extreme styling or makeup, unconventional lighting, locations and props.
Usually editorials will have a different image/styling from one page to the next, however they will all fit the same theme for example a colour of cut of clothing.
When it comes to locations anything is allowed in an editorial image. For example you may clean cut clothing with the background of a scrapyard, everything depends on the story and message intended for the viewer.

Why create an editorial?
Editorials are often used to do more than sell a product. More often than not an editorial will focus on the whole image and aesthetics rather than solely on selling an item of clothing or product. Editorials are used to sell products in a non-conventional way, they are made to make the viewer think and enjoy the images they are viewing and not to be plainly informational.

Here are some examples of editorial images.

A website I found useful when looking into editorials was this one as it covered a lot of different companies and styles.
http://fashioneditorials.com/