Elle

Elle is a fragrance and personal-care line marketed under the ELLE trademark, the fashion-and-lifestyle name founded in Paris in 1945 by the journalist Hélène Gordon-Lazareff [10]. The perfume line is a far more recent venture than the name it carries: it was created under a worldwide licensing agreement and launched its first scent in 2018 [8]. That arrangement gives the brand two very different starting points — a 1945 heritage as an ELLE-branded property [10], and a 2018 debut as a working fragrance line [8].

Day to day, the line is run not from France but from London, by Fragrance Group London, a company also registered as Beauty Group London Ltd at 84 Eccleston Square [6]. Its identity draws on the French ELLE brand, while its licensing, development and distribution operate out of the United Kingdom [6].

The ELLE name dates to November 1945, when Hélène Gordon-Lazareff founded it in Paris; the first issue appeared on 21 November that year [10]. Over the following decades the name grew from a magazine into a broader lifestyle brand that licensed its trademark across fashion, beauty, home decoration and other consumer categories.

The trademark is owned by the French group Lagardère, which holds the ELLE and ELLE Decoration brands and manages their non-media extensions through Lagardère Active Enterprises, part of its ELLE International division [9]. Lagardère kept control of the ELLE brand even after selling the French magazine's publishing operations to Czech Media Invest in 2018, a transaction it structured as a publishing license rather than a transfer of brand ownership [10].

The fragrance line sits one step further out from that ownership. In July 2017, Lagardère Active Enterprises and Fragrance Group London signed a worldwide license to develop ELLE-branded perfume [8]. Because of this layering, the brand's founding date and French origin belong to the ELLE name itself, which dates to 1945, rather than to the fragrance line, which began in 2018 and is operated from the United Kingdom.

The line's first product, ELLE L'Edition Eau de Parfum, launched in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2018, reaching market roughly fifteen months after the licensing agreement was signed [8]. It was sold at first exclusively through The Perfume Shop, in stores and online. In February 2019 distribution widened to Superdrug in the United Kingdom, and the fragrance was also introduced on the QVC home-shopping channel in Germany [8].

The line is built around a "Perfectly Imperfect" mantra and is aimed, in the company's words, at a woman "who exudes effortlessly chic style" [7]. Its commercial positioning is deliberately in the middle of the market. Anna Ferguson, chief executive of the operating company, described the gap it targets this way: "In a fragrance market crowded with costly designer perfumes at the top and celebrity-licensed scents at the lower end, ELLE L'Edition taps into a segment between the two" [8].

The range centres on ELLE L'Edition, a floral-fruity Eau de Parfum sold in 30, 50 and 100 ml sizes, with ancillary items including a body lotion, a hair mist and a purse spray. The catalogue also groups products into a Catwalk Collection and a NaturELLE Collection, the latter presented as the more sustainable and ethical line. The company states that the perfumes are manufactured entirely in Europe [8], and describes its products as vegan, cruelty-free and naturally and ethically sourced.

The fragrance database Fragrantica covered the October 2018 launch of ELLE L'Edition, describing the scent as playful and drawing on the brand's Paris heritage.

The brand is active. Its direct storefront, elleparfums.com, remains live and carries a 2026 copyright notice, with online orders shipped within the United Kingdom. The ELLE fragrance license under which the line operates is current, and the perfumes continue to be distributed through European retail.