Elle, the Parisian luxury fashion brand, continues to offer contemporary, functional and unique styles that complement the needs of today’s women with a heritage spanning nearly 80 years.
Elle is a women’s fashion magazine founded in France in 1945 by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon and owned by the Lagardère Group. Elle means ‘She’ in French. But Elle has long been more than just a fashion magazine. Elle is also a luxury fashion brand that offers a wide range of products inspired by the magazine’s unique vibe and inimitable Parisian lifestyle. Elle offers ready-to-wear collections, sportswear, children’s clothing lines, perfumes and grooming products, as well as a myriad of decorative products such as wall paints, carpet collections, and luxury accessories including bags, watches and eyewear.
The Birth of Elle
Shortly after her marriage to French media magnate Pierre Lazareff in 1938, Russian-born Hélène Gordon decided not to pursue a career in ethnography, despite having studied Dogon tribal culture for two years in the Soudan. Instead, she focused on her favorite subject, fashion. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the couple lived in Manhattan for several years to avoid the backlash against Pierre’s politically controversial newspaper, Paris Soir. Fluent in several languages, including English, Hélène quickly found work in New York, writing for the fashion magazines Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and then as head writer and editor of the now defunct Women’s page of The New York Times.
In 1944, just a few weeks after the liberation of Paris, the Lazareffs returned to France and resumed their lives both socially and professionally. Pierre took over the Paris Soir and built it into one of the highest circulation daily newspapers in Europe, while Hélène, realizing that fashion journalism was her true vocation, decided to use what she had learned abroad to start her own fashion magazine. The successful writer envisioned a women’s magazine whose main editorial approach would be to open women’s minds to different trends around the world and give them exclusive access to the fashion and beauty industries. On October 1, 1945, Hélène launched the first issue of her magazine to the world, achieving her goal of ‘a magazine for women, run by a woman’.
Elle Finds Fame
By the sixties, Elle was said to have a readership of 800,000 across France and to dominate fashion rather than reflect it. In 1985, Hachette Filipacchi Médias, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, began to expand Elle outside France, launching Elle in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Chinese version of the magazine was first published in 1988. It was the first four-color fashion magazine to be offered in China. The magazine became an informative and educational tool to open the Chinese textile market. In 1987, Elle Decoration was launched in France by the Lagardère Group. The internationalization of the brand began in the US in 1989 with the launch of Elle Decor. In 1995, the magazine achieved a major triumph, selling 5 million copies worldwide. Elle.com was launched in 2007. In 2011, the Hearst Corporation entered into a €651 million deal with Lagardère to acquire the rights to publish Elle Magazine in fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Russia and Ukraine. Lagardère, which struggled in the international market in the 2000s, retained the rights to the French edition and charged royalties on international editions. By retaining ownership of the Elle brand in France and through license forms in 25 countries, Lagardère remained the guarantor of brand consistency. Lagardère continues to own the Elle brand in France and internationally by licensing the use of the magazines. Today, the Elle brand is as synonymous with the latest fashion and premium quality as the high-end brands it promotes on its pages and on its various websites. Elle is one of the world’s leading fashion brands with more than 100 websites, including media, e-commerce and product partner accounts, 150 social media accounts and more than 158 supplements accessed by more than 200 million people worldwide. Owned by the French Lagardère Active Group, the Elle brand also accounts for more than $600 million in retail sales of licensed consumer products under various sub-brands such as Elle Homme, Elle Sport, Elle Golf, Elle Décor, Elle Café, Elle Kids, Elle Spa, Elle Salon, Elle Eyewear and more. Lagardère licenses the brand in two ways: media property and products and services. Lagardère Active Enterprises, the Lagardère Group company that licenses all non-media products of Elle, made its first licensing to Japan in 1981.
Elle’s View on Women
Luxury fashion brand Elle is at the intersection of style, beauty and culture. Fashion, beauty, lifestyle and women’s empowerment are the foundation on which the Elle brand is built. From the very beginning, Elle has strived to inspire women to change the world and improve themselves and their understanding of fashion, beauty and lifestyle. In doing so, Elle has always believed that women should make the most of what life has to offer while doing something meaningful for others. Women’s right to vote, access to education and work, and opening their own bank accounts have always been on Elle’s agenda. Women’s empowerment has come a long way, thanks in part to our own mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Even today, the issue is still topical and has finally been fully embraced by the public for a few years now. Women’s equality is an important issue that is also reflected in the historical values of the Elle brand. With and through Elle, women share their vision of the world and life. Elle not only inspires women in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, but also encourages them to be themselves and love who and how they are. This expectation makes the world brighter, filled with positivity, self-esteem, freedom and self-empowerment. With a history approaching eighty years, Elle, the Parisienne lifestyle and luxury fashion brand, continues to offer contemporary, functional and fashion-forward styles that complement and respond to the needs of today’s active women.
Elle Eyewear
Since 1996, Charmant Group has been designing, manufacturing and distributing eyewear globally for this very special Parisian brand that has positively influenced the lives of many women around the world. Charmant reflects the brand’s culture and values in each of the sunglasses and optical frames it produces for the Elle Eyewear collections. The eyewear frames are characterized by Parisian elegance and are made with a reliable quality typical of all products coming out of Charmant factories. Since its foundation in 1945, Elle has addressed women around the world in a language that is both positive and decisive, offering them the keys to success in an ever-changing world. As the standard bearer of their emancipation, Elle Eyewear listens to women and accompanies them every day on their journey towards a strong and independent life. Elle Eyewear stands out for its collections told by women, for women, with high quality French frames. Oscillating gracefully between sophistication and originality, Elle eyewear frames reveal the universal femininity of Parisians with soft and elegant curves, urban color combinations derived from carefully selected acetate sheets and pleasant, creative accents.
In 2020, Parisian lifestyle and fashion brand Elle celebrated its 75th anniversary with a stunning eyewear collection. However, Elle’s 75th anniversary limited edition Tote, a specially printed bag with a unique aesthetic, was highly acclaimed. Charmant, which manufactures and distributes Elle eyewear, prepared the bag to honor Elle’s anniversary and it was described as a work of art. Elle Eyewear’s 75th Anniversary eyewear collection and its statement bag symbolize and honor the brand’s long history of championing a world of positivity, self-confidence, freedom and self-empowerment for women.
Chronology
1945: French media magnate Pierre Lazareff and his Russian-born wife Hélène Gordon found Elle magazine.
1952: Brigitte Bardot was only seventeen years old when she first appeared on the cover of Elle magazine months before Girl in the Bikini.
1956: Grace Kelly appeared on the cover of Elle France a few days before her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. In July, Marilyn Monroe became the cover girl of Elle magazine.
1970: The first international edition of Elle is published under the name Elle Japon.
1985: The American Elle magazine was launched and featured supermodel Yasmin Le Bon on the cover of its first issue. The UK edition of the magazine was launched in the same year and again featured Yasmin Le Bon on its cover.
1988: Hélène Gordon passed away.
1992: Elle Korea was published in 1992 and Elle Singapore a year later.
1994: Mexico, Argentina, Thailand, Poland and Czech Republic editions were launched. Elle Russia and Elle South Africa were launched two years later. Elle Russia was closed in 2022 due to its relations with Ukraine.
1996: Elle and Charmant Group sign a license agreement to design, manufacture and distribute optical and sunglass collections under the Elle brand globally.
1999: Turkey edition launched.
2001: Elle Canada, Elle Ukraine and Elle Hungary were launched. In 2020, Elle Canada closed its office in Toronto but continues to publish from Montreal.
2003: Elle was released in Belgium in both French and Dutch.
2005: The Serbian edition of Elle was launched together with the Bulgarian edition. Elle Slovenia was launched in the same year.
2008: Elle Indonesia and Elle Finland were launched. The Danish edition was also launched in the same year.
2010: A Vietnamese edition (Elle Phái đẹp) was launched under the Ringier license, but ceased publication in 2020. The magazine was later relaunched.
2017: A digital edition was launched for Côte d’Ivoire in February 2017.
2020: The Elle Style Awards and the brand’s global 75th anniversary celebration took place on October 29, 2020 with a glittering gala evening in Chengdu, China.
2024: Elle Lithuania was launched in February 2024. The magazine was published by the same team that previously published L’Officiel Lithuania from 2010 until its closure in 2023. Elle Egypt launched digitally in April 2024, with the print version published in September 2024.
June 2024
