EDITOR’S LETTER

It’s been 75 years since the first edition of ELLE was launched in France. Editor-in-Chief Farrah Storr looks back on its iconic moments

In November 1945, France was emerging from the Second World War and a woman named Hélène Gordon-Lazareff realised her dream of launching a full-colour weekly women’s magazine: ELLE. Sure, there were other style magazines on the market and news publications that captured the quicksilver of culture. But there was nothing combining the two. Nor anything specifically for women. So, in an apartment block on the Avenue Kléber in autumn 1945, ELLE was born: a 2OO-page magazine bound by glue and thread. But also a philosophical place where women, whatever their age, could feel at home.

That magazine celebrates its 75th birthday this year, making her a grand old dame by anyone’s standards. By the time you reach

75, you’ve seen – and learnt – a thing or two. The original French ELLE has seen women rise from domestic serf to corporate ball-breaker. She has witnessed the decriminalisation of abortion; the Paris student riots of 1968 and the 2O2O Black Lives Matter protests. And she’s documented them all – not with the eye of a hardened reporter or the sharp tongue of a national columnist, but with the nuanced lens that’s always been her guiding light.

And let’s not forget all those she’s helped over her eight decades. ELLE gave a cherubic German model called Claudia Schiffer her first cover, as well as featuring ingénue Brigitte Bardot, long before she became France’s most iconic actress. In the early 197Os, ELLE put a Black model, Beverly Johnson, on its cover, which, though it may seem insignificant now, was – unbelievably – one of the first times a major fashion magazine had done so.

By the mid 198Os, ELLE was still leading the way by identifying models who captured the spirit of the time, which is why a largely unknown Australian – whose strong silhouette perfectly captured the emerging strength of women – became one of ELLE’s favourite cover models. Her name? Elle Macpherson.

Flicking through old copies of ELLE is like watching an old video roll where you snatch glimpses of a time long ago. It’s like watching a historical autopsy; compelling, sure, but also shocking in that the world looks so different now. There exists, for example, a 1988 cover that shows a young Monica Bellucci stood on weighing scales. She is naked, bent double, with a mild look of panic on her face. There are editorials, too, with models poured into dresses so tight and suffused with sexuality that their sole purpose appears to be immobility and objectification. We may shudder now, but passing judgement on women who belong to another time has never been ELLE’s thing. She’s far too wise for that.

So here’s to ELLE: a woman who knows you’re never too old to see the world differently. And never too young to appreciate all that has come before you.