Hélène Gordon-Lazareff (; 21 September 1909 – 16 February 1988) was a French journalist of Russian Jewish origin who founded ''

Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

'' magazine in 1945. She was married to

Pierre Lazareff Pierre Lazareff (1907–1972) was a French newspaper editor and publisher. He was the son of a Russian Jewish emigrant, David Lazareff, and an Alsatian Jew, Marthe Helft. He was passionate about newspapers from his childhood, even running a fam ...

, founder of the newspaper ''

France-Soir ''France Soir'' ( en, France Evening) was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a popul ...

''. She had two daughters, Michèle Lazareff-Rosier from her first marriage and Nina Lazareff from her second marriage with Pierre.

Life

Born in Russia, Hélène Gordon-Lazareff fled to France from the Bolshevik Revolution. She studied ethnography at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. She began her career as a journalist in the 1930s, writing the children's page for ''France-Soir'' under the name "Tante Juliette". She later married the owner of the newspaper, Pierre Lazareff in 1938. The couple left Paris for New York after the outbreak of World War II. Gordon-Lazareff was easily integrated into journalist circles in New York because of her perfect English. She became an editor of the

women's page The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' after working for ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'' and. She returned to Paris in 1944 a couple of weeks after the city was liberated. She decided to start her own fashion magazine and used the experience she had after having worked for several American magazines. A year later the first issue of ''Elle'' magazine was published in October "on paper so course that it reminded her of French bread". After a year journalist

Françoise Giroud Françoise Giroud, born Lea France Gourdji (21 September 1916 in Lausanne, Switzerland and not in Geneva as often written – 19 January 2003 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer, and politician. Biography Giroud ...

was hired to take over as editor-in-chief of the magazine when Gordon-Lazareff became seriously ill. In ''Profession Journaliste'' Françoise Giroud describes Gordon-Lazareff as "a brilliant, young woman".

References

Sources

Hélène Gordon at ''Enfant Terribles'', Susan Weiner
published in 2001
Elle's history
at ''Elle''
Hélène Gordon
at ''Profession Journaliste'', Françoise Giroud

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon-Lazaref, Helene 1909 births 1988 deaths French people of Russian-Jewish descent White Russian emigrants to France Harper's Bazaar The New York Times people Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century American writers Elle (magazine) writers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Women's page journalists 20th-century French journalists