Hélène Gordon-Lazareff

Hélène Gordon-Lazareff was born into an upper-class Jewish family in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on 21 September 1909.{{cite book |last=Blandin |first=Claire |year=2023 |title=Hélène Gordon-Lazareff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2-rEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1918 |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=Fayard |pages=1918, 1920–1924, 1929–1931 |isbn=978-2-2137-2328-0}}{{cite news |date=18 February 1988 |title=La disparition d'Hélène Gordon-Lazareff La 'tsarine' de la presse féminine |trans-title=The disappearance of Hélène Gordon-Lazareff The 'tsarina' of the women's press |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/02/18/la-disparition-d-helene-gordon-lazareff-la-tsarine-de-la-presse-feminine_4066822_1819218.html |url-status=live |language=fr |newspaper=Le Monde |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231216230519/https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/02/18/la-disparition-d-helene-gordon-lazareff-la-tsarine-de-la-presse-feminine_4066822_1819218.html |archive-date=16 December 2023 |access-date=28 December 2023 |url-access=subscription}} Her father, Boris Gordon, born in Rostov-on-Don in 1881, married Élisabeth Skomarovski. Boris was a tobacco industry magnate and owner of a paper factory, a printing house, and {{lang|ru|Préazosvki Kraï Novosti}} newspaper. Press historian and biographer Claire Blandin said her father was "a wealthy and cultured businessman".{{cite news |last=Bloch-Lainé |first=Virginie |date=16 August 2023 |title=Une biographie d'Hélène Gordon-Lazareff: diva de la presse |trans-title=A biography of Hélène Gordon-Lazareff: press diva |url=https://www.liberation.fr/culture/livres/une-biographie-dhelene-gordon-lazareff-diva-de-la-presse-20230816_6H2QFMJILJDUHOPA2P6QPXCJTY/ |url-status=live |language=fr |newspaper=Libération |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231216222932/https://www.liberation.fr/culture/livres/une-biographie-dhelene-gordon-lazareff-diva-de-la-presse-20230816_6H2QFMJILJDUHOPA2P6QPXCJTY/ |archive-date=16 December 2023 |access-date=28 January 2024 |url-access=subscription}} Hélène had a sister, Émilie, who was born in 1903.

The family fled to France to escape the Bolshevik Revolution. Her father had transferred the funds to France and abroad and was the first to escape to Italy, accompanied by his mistress. Around the end of 1917, Hélène, Émilie, and their mother Élisabeth left Russia on a luxury train that took them towards the Black Sea, and then they reached Istanbul, Turkey. During the travel, they cut Hélène's long hair to avoid attracting eye contact from the Bolsheviks. She would subsequently always wear short hair. The three then found Boris in Paris.

They settled in Paris in early 1920. Her parents were separated at this point. She was closer to her father, an ambitious man, who had also organised their escape, even though he had found another woman. Blandin said Gordon-Lazareff was a "Spoiled child traumatized by exile, fascinated by power."

Gordon-Lazareff attended Victor-Duruy High School and College in Paris.{{cite book |last1=Ory |first1=Pacal |author-link1=Pascal Ory |last2=Blanc-Chaléard |first2=Marie-Claude |date=2013 |title=Dictionnaire des étrangers qui ont fait la France |trans-title=Dictionary of foreigners who made France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXBJAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT614 |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=Éditions Robert Laffont |page=614 |isbn=978-2-2211-4016-1}} Blandin commented that she was a "great reader" and "an excellent student".

Subsequently, she studied ethnology at the Sorbonne in Paris. When she was a student of ethnology, Gordon-Lazareff spent time with surrealists such as Philippe Soupault, who dedicated a poem to her.

In the early 1930s, Gordon-Lazareff, a young divorced mother, graduated from the Institute of Ethnology.{{cite web |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/afrique/helene-gordon-lazareff |title=Hélène Gordon |date=n.d. |website=National Library of France |language=fr |access-date=29 December 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231229182241/https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/afrique/helene-gordon-lazareff?mode=desktop |archive-date=29 December 2023}}

Gordon-Lazareff began her career as an ethnologist.{{cite news |date=3 December 1945 |title=The Press: Not So Chichi |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,852507,00.html |url-status=live |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240123180709/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,852507,00.html |archive-date=23 January 2024 |access-date=23 January 2024}} She participated in the 1935 Sahara-Sudan ethnographic expedition, which Marcel Griaule led. She mainly investigated totemism and women in Dogon country.{{cite web |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/afrique/sahara-soudan-1935 |title=Sahara-Soudan (1935) |date=n.d. |website=National Library of France |language=fr |access-date=29 December 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231229182745/https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/afrique/sahara-soudan-1935?mode=desktop |archive-date=29 December 2023}} She lived for two months with an African tribe. Upon her return, Gordon-Lazareff published her first travelogue in {{lang|fr|L'Intransigeant}}. It was during this period that she met Pierre Lazareff at the home of the explorer Paul-Émile Victor.

Little interested in scientific journals, she turned to mainstream journalism in the 1930s, writing the children's page for {{lang|fr|Paris-soir}} under the pseudonym of {{lang|fr|Tante Juliette}} (Aunt Juliette).{{cite book |last=Thérenty |first=Marie-Eve |date=2019 |title=Femmes de presse, femmes de lettres − De Delphine de Girardin à Florence Aubenas |trans-title=Women of the press, women of letters − From Delphine de Girardin to Florence Aubenas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DoPpEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264 |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=CNRS editions |page=264 |isbn=978-2-2711-2913-0}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fAbxF0fYsrkC&pg=PA43 | title=Enfants Terribles: Youth and Femininity in the Mass Media in France, 1945-1968| isbn=9780801865398| last1=Weiner| first1=Susan| date=2001-05-09| publisher=JHU Press}} She was a journalist at Marie Claire.{{cite book |last=Feyel |first=Gilles |date=2023 |title=La presse en France des origines à nos jours. Histoire politique et matérielle |trans-title=The press in France from its origins to the present day. Political and material history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_qbNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1971 |url-status=live |language=fr |edition=3 |location=Paris |publisher=Editions Ellipses |isbn=978-2-3400-8290-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230151531/https://books.google.com/books?id=_qbNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1971 |archive-date=30 December 2023}}

After the outbreak of World War II, she left Paris for New York City with her husband [Pierre] Lazareff, director of {{lang|fr|Paris-soir}}. Gordon-Lazareff was easily integrated into journalist circles in New York because of her perfect English.{{cite magazine |last=Hedrich |first=Pierre |date=12 July 2016 |title='Elle': Et Hélène Lazareff inventa le mag féminin nouvelle génération |trans-title='Elle': And Hélène Lazareff invented the new generation women's magazine |url=https://teleobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20160712.OBS4499/elle-et-helene-lazareff-inventa-le-mag-feminin-nouvelle-generation.html |url-status=live |language=fr |magazine=L'Obs |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240113183854/https://teleobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20160712.OBS4499/elle-et-helene-lazareff-inventa-le-mag-feminin-nouvelle-generation.html |archive-date=13 January 2024 |access-date=10 November 2024}} She became an editor of the women's page of The New York Times after working for Harper's Bazaar.{{cite magazine |date=22 May 1964 |title=Magazines: Si Elle Lit Elle Lit Elle |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871121,00.html |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216235734/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,871121-1,00.html |access-date=28 December 2023 |archive-date=16 December 2023 |url-status=live}} Her husband worked for Voice of America and the French section of OWI.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-068-2484-12A, Frankreich, Paris, deutsche Besatzung.jpg in 1941]]

She returned to Paris in 1944, a couple of weeks after the Liberation. She began her own fashion magazine and used her experience after working for American media.

A year later, the first issue of {{lang|fr|Elle}} magazine was published "on paper so coarse and yellow that it reminded her of French bread". Gordon-Lazareff founded {{lang|fr|Elle}} in 1945 in Paris.{{cite magazine |date=31 May 2007 |title=Defending Fashion |url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/05/30/brady-media-fashion-oped-cx_jb_0531brady.html |url-status=live |magazine=Forbes |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231228231031/https://www.forbes.com/2007/05/30/brady-media-fashion-oped-cx_jb_0531brady.html?sh=4621e2b94e21 |archive-date=28 December 2023 |access-date=28 December 2023}} She had set up the {{lang|fr|Elle}} offices two floors above those of {{lang|fr|France-Soir}}, at No. 100 of {{ill|street Réaumur|fr|Rue Réaumur}} in Paris.{{cite news |last=Mallaval |first=Catherine |date=19 November 2005 |title='Elle' était une fois. |trans-title='Elle' once upon a time. |url=https://www.liberation.fr/medias/2005/11/19/elle-etait-une-fois_539541/ |url-status=live |language=fr |newspaper=Libération |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240121200136/https://www.liberation.fr/medias/2005/11/19/elle-etait-une-fois_539541/ |archive-date=21 January 2024 |access-date=9 March 2024}} Colour photography and flash were not yet the norm in Post-War France, and the first covers of {{lang|fr|Elle}} were thus photographed in Manhattan. She had borrowed French accessories, including 15 "{{lang|fr|chic}}" {{lang|fr|Lilly Daché|italic=no}} hats for these covers.

Between 1945 and 1965, she "spotted everything that sparkled". Editorial writer Michèle Fitoussi said she was "more of a journalist who had a lot of flair than a feminist". {{lang|fr|Elle}}'s motto was then: "seriousness in frivolity and irony in graveness".

In 1946, Gordon-Lazareff hired journalist Françoise Giroud to be the managing editor of {{lang|fr|Elle}}, a position she held until 1953.{{cite news |last=Ivry |first=Benjamin |author-link=Benjamin Ivry |date=27 January 2003 |title=French journalist leaves her mark |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2003/01/27/french-journalist-leaves-her-mark/ |url-status=live |newspaper=Tampa Bay Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231181906/https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2003/01/27/french-journalist-leaves-her-mark/ |archive-date=31 December 2023 |access-date=31 December 2023}} In her book, {{lang|fr|Profession Journaliste}}, Giroud describes Gordon-Lazareff as "a brilliant, young woman".{{Cite web|url=https://fashionabecedaire.tumblr.com/post/454033879/magazine-history-and-lazareff-created-french-elle|title=Magazine history: And Lazareff created French Elle|website=It's OK for intellectual feminists to like fashion}}

In 1949, she met a 15-year-old stranger named Brigitte Bardot on a station platform and simply told her, "Call me". Before her first film, Bardot became {{lang|fr|Elle}}'s main model who presented junior fashion. {{lang|fr|Elle}} launched Bardot's career.{{cite news |last1=Gaston-Breton |first1=Tristan |last2=Garnier |first2=Pascal |date=11 July 2014 |title=Hélène et Pierre Lazareff, un couple d'influence |trans-title=Hélène and Pierre Lazareff, an influential couple |url=https://www.lesechos.fr/2014/07/helene-et-pierre-lazareff-un-couple-dinfluence-1102991 |url-status=live |language=fr |newspaper=Les Echos |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240121134636/https://www.lesechos.fr/2014/07/helene-et-pierre-lazareff-un-couple-dinfluence-1102991 |archive-date=21 January 2024 |access-date=21 January 2024}}

In 1958, she collaborated with {{lang|fr|Galeries Lafayette|italic=no}} to create a clothing line under the {{lang|fr|Elle}} brand.

In 1966, the director of Neiman Marcus stores presented Gordon-Lazareff with a Fashion Award and stated that she "is the person who has the most influence on what women wear in Europe and the United States".

Pierre Hedrich of {{lang|fr|L'Obs}} described Gordon-Lazareff as a "lively woman, always in a Chanel skirt suit set, seductive and authoritative, who puts her feet on her desk and drinks tea all day long". {{lang|fr|Alix Girod de l'Ain|italic=no}}, a former journalist for {{lang|fr|Elle}}, would later explain that "Hélène Lazareff is not a feminist. She can't stand women in pants. She won't understand May 68." The French social movements of May 1968 shook Gordon-Lazareff's authority within the editorial staff.

Gordon-Lazareff was editor-in-chief of {{lang|fr|Elle}} until 1972.{{cite web |url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac/showFirstRecord?currentResultId=nid%3D1011277018%26any¤tPosition=0 |title=Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek |date=n.d. |website=German National Library |language=de |trans-title=Catalog of the German National Library |access-date=30 December 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231230165903/https://portal.dnb.de/opac/showFirstRecord?currentResultId=nid%3D1011277018%26any¤tPosition=0 |archive-date=30 December 2023}} She left office in September 1972.{{cite web |url=https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12013350/helene_gordon-lazareff/ |title=Hélène Gordon-Lazareff (1909-1988) |date=n.d. |website=National Library of France |language=fr |access-date=14 January 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240114132808/https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12013350/helene_gordon-lazareff/ |archive-date=14 January 2024}}

At Georges Pompidou's request, the Hachette Group paid Gordon-Lazareff her full salary as chief executive of {{lang|fr|Elle}} magazine until her death.

{{lang|fr|Le Monde}} wrote in 1988 that she was "one of the great figures of the French press after the Liberation".

File:Louveciennes Plaque Lazareff.jpg

Every Sunday at 1 p.m., Gordon-Lazareff and her husband, Pierre, hosted artists, actors, politicians and writers for lunch at their property, called {{lang|fr|la Grille Royale}} (the Royal Grid) in Louveciennes, Yvelines.

The twenty seats at the table were considered "prized", and a list of high-profile personalities would come there by helicopter or sedan, including Harry Belafonte, Habib Bourguiba, Marlon Brando, Maria Callas, Marlene Dietrich, Johnny Hallyday, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, and Aristotle Onassis. {{lang|fr|Juliette Gréco|italic=no}} said, "It was very important to be invited to Louveciennes."

Bardot, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Jacques Delors and Romain Gary were regulars at Sunday lunches at the home of the "influential couple" and "unmissable tandem of All-Paris" that Gordon-Lazareff and her husband formed. François Mitterrand, Jeanne Moreau, Pompidou, Françoise Sagan and Pierre Salinger were also regulars.

{{lang|fr|General de Gaulle|italic=no}} was never invited but insisted that the list of guests from the previous Sunday be communicated to him every Monday morning.

Sunday lunches at {{lang|fr|la Grille Royale}} were a crucial source of information and influence for Gordon-Lazareff and her husband.

She was nineteen when she married Jean-Paul Raudnitz, a chemical engineer, in 1928. The two did not get along, and Raudnitz could not cope financially with Hélène's lifestyle, and they divorced after three years. She had a daughter, {{lang|fr|Michèle Rosier|italic=no}}, from this first marriage.{{cite magazine |last=Couston |first=Jérémie |date=4 May 2016 |title=Michèle Rosier, l'inconnue du cinéma français |trans-title=Michèle Rosier, the stranger of French cinema |url=https://www.telerama.fr/sortir/michele-rosier-l-inconnue-du-cinema-francais,141940.php |url-status=live |language=fr |magazine=Télérama |others=French Cinematheque |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240114133619/https://www.telerama.fr/sortir/michele-rosier-l-inconnue-du-cinema-francais,141940.php |archive-date=14 January 2024 |access-date=14 January 2024 |trans-quote=Michèle was 9 years old when her mother, the journalist Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, recently divorced from the father of her child, remarried Pierre Lazareff.}}

She married [Pierre] Lazareff, founder of {{lang|fr|France-Soir}}, in April 1939 in Paris. When she lived in New York, she had numerous extramarital affairs, which only drove her husband to despair. Nina Lazareff was Pierre's adopted daughter.{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Yseult |author-link=:fr:Yseult Williams |year=2015 |title=Impératrices de la mode |trans-title=Empresses of fashion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRuNCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT104 |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=La Martinière Groupe |page=104 |isbn=978-2-7324-7237-9}}

Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Gordon-Lazareff experienced increasing difficulties after the death of her husband in 1972.

On 16 February 1988, Gordon-Lazareff died at her property in {{lang|fr|Le Lavandou|italic=no}}. She was buried at {{lang|fr|Père Lachaise Cemetery|italic=no}} in Paris.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://archive.org/details/enfantsterribles00wein/page/43 Hélène Gordon at Enfant Terribles, Susan Weiner], published in 2001
• [https://archive.today/20120710030332/http://fashion.elle.com/fashion/insider/2009/10/06/dont-know-much-about-elles-history/ Elle's history] at Elle
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111221235423/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852507,00.html Not So Chichi, Time Magazine U.S.]
• [http://fashionabecedaire.tumblr.com/post/454033879/magazine-history-and-lazareff-created-french-elle Hélène Gordon] at Profession Journaliste, Françoise Giroud
• [http://www.readabstracts.com/Publishing-industry/Guy-Billouts-parallel-universe-Helene-Gordon-Lazareff-the-tsarina-who-was-ELLE.html Hélène Gordon Lazareff: The Tsarina Who Was Elle, Véronique Vienne]

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Category:1909 births

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Category:French people of Russian-Jewish descent

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Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery

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