Elle (magazine)
worldwide lifestyle magazine
Elle (French pronunciation: [ɛl]; lit. 'She' or 'Her'; stylised in all caps), is a French weekly women's fashion lifestyle magazine. It offers a mixture of fashion, beauty, and general lifestyle content. It has been published in Paris since its 1945 founding by Hélène Gordon-Lazareff.
The magazine has a global audience reach of over 250 million people monthly, 50 international editions, and spin-off publications such as Elle Décoration, Elle Men, and Elle à Table. The magazine is considered "one of the world's largest fashion and lifestyle publications".
Background
Elle (lit. 'She' or 'Her') is a French fashion magazine founded in 1945 by Hélène Gordon-Lazareff. Elle is a weekly publication, published fifty-two times per year.
Circulation
Editors
History
Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, Russian-born and Paris-raised, started Elle in Paris in the immediate aftermath of World War II. It was first sold as a supplement to France-Soir, edited at the time by Hélène's husband, Pierre Lazareff. Hélène, Elle's pioneering founder, returned to Paris from New York City to create a unique publication that grappled with the many forces shaping women's lives in France in 1945. Women won the right to vote in 1944, and Elle dove immediately into long-form "newspaper-like" features on women's role in national politics and the growing feminist movement.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Elle (magazine)” is worldwide lifestyle magazine. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Elle, magazine and worldwide, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “worldwide lifestyle magazine” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q154020. VIAF identifies the subject as 123699564. The Library of Congress control number is n88645804. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945 and 1944.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Elle (magazine)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Elle (magazine) primary sources, Elle (magazine) archive and Elle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elle (magazine)”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Elle (magazine)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.