ELLE Brand Audit: Licensed French Mark, Made-in-India Shoes

ELLE is a French magazine title, and the ELLE on a pair of heels sold in India is that magazine’s trade mark, licensed onto goods. On a mirror of the Indian trade-mark register the ELLE marks stand in the name of Hachette Filipacchi Presse, a French company at Levallois-Perret, in class 25 for clothing and footwear among others; the group above the title, Lagardère SA, calls the goods side “a non-media licensing business” and names no licensee. It is not Elle 18: the Elle 18 on a kajal pencil belongs to Hindustan Unilever Limited, Mumbai, in class 3 for cosmetics, and that make-up line has its own page here.

In India the goods are on sale on the large fashion platforms. On 26 September 2026 AJIO ran a 56-page ELLE store operated by Reliance Retail Limited; on one large Indian fashion marketplace the facet “ELLE” carried 3,120 listings and “ELLE 18” carried 316, and twenty ELLE records opened there declared India as origin on all twenty and Indian companies at Bahadurgarh, Bamnoli and Udyog Vihar on the manufacturer line.

Snapshot

What it is

A French magazine title licensed onto goods and services by third parties; the group above the title, Lagardère SA, says it holds “the Elle brand licence”. Not Elle 18, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s colour-cosmetics range

Indian trade marks

Hachette Filipacchi Presse, at Levallois-Perret or Paris, on every ELLE record opened; application 2647204, “Elle” (word), class 25, status “Registered” (register mirror, read 26 September 2026)

Indian licensee

Not named on the ELLE pages or AJIO policies read. The magazine site names “Ogaan”; the companies register lists OGAAN MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, CIN U74899DL1995PTC064930, incorporated 1 February 1995

Indian seller of record

“Global Fashion” on 12 of 20 marketplace records; “ICONIC FASHION RETAILING PVT LTD” on 8 of 20; importer “Iconic Fashion Retailing Pvt Ltd, 601 6th Floor…”, as the field cuts it, on 7

Declared origin

India on 20 of 20 marketplace records; eight Indian declared manufacturers, led by “AAA FASHIONS PRIVATE LIMITED”, Bahadurgarh, on 5

Indian returns

“10 (ten) days Returnable” for footwear, apparel and accessories on AJIO; refund by “Reliance Retail Limited” in “7-10 (seven to ten) business days”; no ELLE warranty on any page read

Price band in India

₹576 to ₹3,299 on five AJIO listings; median MRP ₹3,299 over 40 marketplace listings; read 26 September 2026. No price tier

The shelf

3,120 listings on the ELLE facet of a large Indian fashion marketplace; median selling price ₹1,923.50, 58.3% of MRP, 37 of 40 reduced; AJIO store “Page 1 of 56”; read 26 September 2026

Who owns ELLE

Lagardère SA’s 2025 Universal Registration Document, dated 27 March 2026, places ELLE inside Lagardère News, which the group’s site describes as “Le Journal du Dimanche, Le JDNews, Le JDMag and the Elle brand licence”. Beside the media network it describes a licensing business for goods:

It also includes a non-media licensing business (fashion, beauty, decoration, services, etc.) comprising 200 licensees in over 80 countries.

Lagardère SA, 2025 Universal Registration Document, dated 27 March 2026; read 26 September 2026.

The brand’s own international site says “The ELLE Brand is present in 80 countries and developed under media licenses agreements with now the 175 partners in the worlds.” The site names no licensee, and the registration document mentions India for ELLE in connection with the magazine title ELLE Gourmet.

The group’s figures are published. The key-figures table gives revenue of €9,353 million, recurring operating profit of 641 and “Profit – Group share (€m)” of 203 for the year ended 31 December 2025, against 8,942, 593 and 168 for 2024; Louis Hachette Group is “the new controlling shareholder of Lagardère SA” from December 2024, at a percentage no document read states. No subsidiary table naming Hachette Filipacchi Presse was read, so this page asserts no shareholding, and the mirror records no change of proprietor on any ELLE row read.

On the mirror every ELLE record opened in classes 25, 18, 35, 36, 43, 10 and 21 names Hachette Filipacchi Presse, at 149 Rue Anatole France, 92534 Levallois Perret, Cedex, France, on the class 25 record and at Levallois-Perret or Paris addresses on the others. The row that matters for a shoe is application 2647204, the ELLE word mark for “Clothing, Footwear, Headgear, Belts, Scarves”: filed 23 December 2013, used since 11 April 2012, status “Registered”.

The same proprietor’s name stands on other ELLE filings, among them 2647211, filed the same day in classes 36 and 43, and 645372 in class 18 for leather goods and travelling bags. The table sets out the rows read on 26 September 2026.

Proprietor on every row Hachette Filipacchi Presse, as the mirror prints it; read 26 September 2026. No class outside this table is treated as absent.

Every register line here comes from a public mirror of the Indian register rather than the official registry, and the mirror abbreviates proprietor names. An Indian licence need not be recorded on the register to be valid.

How ELLE reaches India

Two ELLE businesses operate in India: the magazine and the licensed goods. The magazine site, elle.in, says in its privacy notice that the site’s marks “are registered and unregistered Trademarks of Ogaan and others”; the companies-register mirror carries OGAAN MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, CIN U74899DL1995PTC064930, incorporated 1 February 1995, at H-2, Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi 110016, paid-up capital ₹13,28,00,000. No document read says on what terms, or from whom, that company publishes the magazine.

For the goods, AJIO’s ELLE brand store ran to 56 pages on 26 September 2026. The store and the platform’s terms, privacy policy and returns policy name the platform’s operator, Reliance Retail Limited, Mumbai, and do not name an ELLE licensee, importer or marketer.

A licensee need not put the brand in its company name, and an Indian licence need not be recorded on the register, so this page does not say which company holds the licence for ELLE goods in India.

ELLE on the shelf

The marketplace declarations name the parties answerable for the goods. On 26 September 2026 the ELLE facet on a large Indian fashion marketplace carried 3,120 listings, one click from the 316 on “ELLE 18”, and twenty were opened.

Twenty ELLE listings opened one at a time on 26 September 2026; every string as the field showed it.

Read the seller line first, because that is the contract: a marketplace sale is with the seller of record, here “Global Fashion” on twelve and “ICONIC FASHION RETAILING PVT LTD” on eight. Then read the manufacturer line: it records a company that has accepted responsibility for the goods under India’s packaging rules, and the address beside it is where that company can be found — not where a sole was glued to an upper. Bahadurgarh, Bamnoli and Udyog Vihar appear there as addresses of answerable companies, not as named factories.

Three strings on that table are held apart: “ICONIC FASHION RETAILING PVT LTD” is a seller, “Iconic Fashion Retailing Pvt Ltd, 601 6th Floor…” an importer entry in a differently printed field, and “Iconic Creation” at Bamnoli, Dwarka, a declared manufacturer. “AAA FASHIONS PRIVATE LIMITED” and “AAA FASHIONS” are likewise two strings at two addresses.

Where ELLE is made

ELLE goods in India are declared made in India. The licensor is a publisher rather than a manufacturer, and the AJIO product pages read carried no origin line; the marketplace records declared India as origin on 20 of 20, with Indian companies named on the manufacturer line, which names the company responsible for the goods rather than a factory. The one material named on the Indian ELLE listings read is “EVA upper”, in the title of the ₹576 flip-flop.

ELLE and Elle 18, two marks with two owners

Hindustan Unilever’s own page calls Elle 18 “an exciting and colourful range of cosmetics for today’s young Indian women”; its mark, application 689760, “Elle 18” (device), class 3, was filed on 8 December 1995, reads “Registered” and runs to 8 December 2029. Every ELLE record opened names Hachette Filipacchi Presse at a French address, and neither company’s paperwork mentions the other in anything read.

The register mirror’s records, Hindustan Unilever’s brand page and the marketplace facet, all read 26 September 2026.

Returns, warranty and who answers

Take the four things a buyer would want from a brand’s name — somebody to complain to, somebody who refunds, a window to send the pair back, and a guarantee. On AJIO each of these comes from the platform. Somebody to complain to: “Designation: Grievance Officer, Email Address: grievance.officer@ajio.com”. Somebody who refunds: “Reliance Retail Limited”, within “7-10 (seven to ten) business days from the date of us receiving the Products and verifying the defect or the non-compliance in the Product.” A window: “10 (ten) days Returnable” for apparel, accessories and footwear. A guarantee: no ELLE warranty was published on the pages read.

For a licensed name, after-sales support runs through the platform and the seller. The licensor’s site lists no authorised retailers, elle.in is a magazine site rather than a shop, and the platform’s terms describe it as “an intermediary under the applicable laws”. Compare a single-label retailer whose own page names its company, or the labels a chain runs itself; here the platform operator is the company a shopper deals with.

What ELLE costs in India

The facet’s first forty listings, read as they came on 26 September 2026, were heels 13, boots 8, ballerinas 5, tops 5 and sweaters 4 — 26 of 40 footwear. Median MRP ₹3,299, median selling price ₹1,923.50, 58.3% of MRP, 37 of 40 reduced; heels alone, thirty listings, ₹3,299 against ₹1,814, 55.0%. AJIO prints a selling price and nothing to set it against.

All five read on AJIO on 26 September 2026. No MRP or discount was readable on any of the five, so no reduction is given and no gap is computed.

The five support a range of ₹576 to ₹3,299 on one platform on one day. A home-market comparison is not possible, because the brand’s home is a magazine: elle.fr and elle.com are magazine properties and the licensor’s site sells nothing, so there is no like-for-like pair and no tier; the comparison that works for a department-store chain whose labels sit under one listed company has nothing to grip here.

Checking an ELLE is genuine

The ELLE sites read do not carry an authorised-retailer list or a where-to-buy page, so the checks below come from the listing declarations every marketplace product page carries.

The record in India

No court, tribunal or regulator decision concerning ELLE goods in India was found for this page. The searches made were of the companies register and the trade-mark register; neither is a judgment search, so this section reports no rulings.

Who ELLE is actually for

ELLE suits a buyer who wants a heel, a boot or a ballerina at the day’s marketplace price, around ₹1,814 for heels against a ₹3,299 MRP, and who is happy to deal with the marketplace seller and the platform for returns. A buyer who wants a brand-backed warranty or a brand-run store will find neither on the pages read.

Common questions

References

1. Lagardère SA, 2025 Universal Registration Document — the quoted “non-media licensing business” sentence, “close to 80 international editions”, the Lagardère News scope including “the ELLE International network’s licensing management business”, revenue of €9,353 million and recurring EBIT of €641 million for 2025, ELLE Gourmet “in the Middle East and India”, Louis Hachette Group as “the new controlling shareholder of Lagardère SA” from December 2024, and Hachette Filipacchi Médias in a 2000 share-exchange context only; with the group’s regulated-information index dating the document 27 March 2026; both read 26 September 2026
2. Lagardère SA, key figures — revenue 9,353 and 8,942, “Group recurring operating profit of fully consolidated companies (€m)” 641 and 593, and “Profit – Group share (€m)” 203 and 168, for 2025 and 2024; with the group’s home page describing Lagardère News as “Le Journal du Dimanche, Le JDNews, Le JDMag and the Elle brand licence”; both read 26 September 2026
3. elleinternational.com — “The ELLE Brand is present in 80 countries and developed under media licenses agreements with now the 175 partners in the worlds.”, the categories “ready-to-wear, accessories, services”, no licensee and no India material; read 26 September 2026
4. elle.in, about page, with its privacy notice, its page for advertisers, its contact page and its feedback page — ELLE India operating since December 1996 from Mumbai with a New Delhi office, the quoted trade-mark sentence naming “Ogaan”, the “Ogaan Media” reference beside ELLE Décor, ELLE Gourmet and India Design ID, the footer “© Copyright 2025 Elle”, and no grievance officer or postal address, and no company beyond “Ogaan”, on any of the five; all read 26 September 2026. Two editorial job titles on the about page are not recorded
5. A companies-register mirror’s record for OGAAN MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED — CIN U74899DL1995PTC064930, incorporated 1 February 1995, the Hauz Khas Village office, authorised capital ₹14,50,00,000, paid-up ₹13,28,00,000, “OTHER BUSINESS ACTIVITIES”, ROC Delhi, last balance sheet 31 March 2023; with a second mirror’s record for “Publishing of Newspapers, Books, periodicals, etc. activities”; both read 26 September 2026, neither a certified extract. With ogaan.com, a separate designer-fashion retailer that says nothing about ELLE, read the same day
6. The companies-register mirror’s search on OGAAN, which found OGAAN MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED with its CIN; read 26 September 2026
7. A public mirror’s record for Indian application 2647204 — class 25, “Clothing, Footwear, Headgear, Belts, Scarves”, Hachette Filipacchi Presse at 149 Rue Anatole France, 92534 Levallois Perret Cedex, “Registered”, filed 23 December 2013, used since 11 April 2012, Kolkata office; with the mirror’s class 25 listing; both read 26 September 2026
8. The mirror’s record for 2647211, classes 36 and 43, “Valid / Upto 23 December 2033”, “renewed for 10 years from 23 December 2023”; 645372, class 18, renewed from 11 November 2024 to 11 November 2034; 2624208, class 35, “Valid / Upto 07 November 2033”; 1257224, class 36, “Registered”; 5164271, class 10, to 7 October 2031; and 4368912, class 21, to 5 December 2029 — each opened as its own record, proprietor Hachette Filipacchi Presse as printed; with the mirror’s search on the term, “30 of 259 Matches”, for the class 11 and class 7 listing rows; all read 26 September 2026
9. The mirror’s record for Elle 18, application 689760 — Hindustan Unilever Limited, Unilever House, B D Sawant Marg, Chakala, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400099, class 3, filed and used since 8 December 1995, “Registered”, valid until 8 December 2029, “Registration Renewed For A Period Of 10 Years From 08/12/2019”; with its search on the term for the further Elle 18 rows in Hindustan Unilever’s and Hindustan Lever’s names; both read 26 September 2026
10. Hindustan Unilever, Elle 18 brand page — the quoted description and the range of eyeliner, kajal, lipstick, nail polish, compact and foundation; with its company page for “₹63,763 crore turnover in FY 2025-26”; both read 26 September 2026
11. AJIO’s ELLE brand store — the title “ELLE ® – Buy original ELLE products online in India – AJIO”, the meta description, the footwear, handbag and girls’ top categories, “Page 1 of 56”, no brand narrative and no licensee named; read 26 September 2026
12. AJIO, ELLE Women Round Toe Slip-On Heeled Loafers, 703777815, ₹1,814; the flip-flop listing, 703190421, ₹576, “EVA upper”; the girls’ top, 702595000, ₹1,379; the girls’ top, 703243950, ₹1,559; and the shoulder bag, 702101996, ₹3,299 — no MRP, discount, marketer, importer or origin line readable on any of the five; all read 26 September 2026
13. AJIO terms and conditions — “Reliance Retail Limited, having its registered office at 3rd Floor, Court House, Lokmanya Tilak Marg, Dhobi Talao, Mumbai–400002, Maharashtra, India”, “Designation: Grievance Officer, Email Address: grievance.officer@ajio.com” and the quoted intermediary sentence; its returns and refunds policy for “10 (ten) days Returnable”, “07 (seven) days Returnable”, the non-returnable categories, refunds by “Reliance Retail Limited” and the quoted 7-10 business day timeline; and its privacy policy for the same entity and designation, on which an individual’s name appears and is not reproduced; all read 26 September 2026
14. Hearst, ELLE — “As the world’s largest fashion magazine and media brand, ELLE inspires women to explore and celebrate style in all aspects of their lives.”, naming no licence, licensor or trade-mark owner; with Hearst’s Japanese ELLE SHOP, whose meta description describes the magazine’s official fashion mail-order site selling brands selected from around the world; both read 26 September 2026
15. The ELLE and ELLE 18 brand facets, their listing pages and twenty individual product declarations on a large Indian fashion marketplace, read 26 September 2026 — 3,120 listings on the ELLE facet and 316 on ELLE 18; median MRP ₹3,299 and median selling price ₹1,923.50 over the first 40 ELLE listings as they came, 37 of 40 reduced, heels 13, boots 8, ballerinas 5, tops 5, sweaters 4; median MRP ₹3,299 and median selling price ₹1,814 over 30 heels on the category filter; and on the 20 records opened, seller of record “Global Fashion” on 12 and “ICONIC FASHION RETAILING PVT LTD” on 8, importer “Iconic Fashion Retailing Pvt Ltd, 601 6th Floor…” on 7, country of origin India on 20, and eight declared manufacturers including “AAA FASHIONS PRIVATE LIMITED” at HSIIDC Industrial Estate, Bahadurgarh, on 5, “AAA FASHIONS” at Bamnoli, New Delhi, on 4, “Weave And Knits” at Udyog Vihar Phase 6 on 3 and “Iconic Creation” at Bamnoli, Sector-28, Dwarka, on 2. Every company name is copied as its field printed it, cut short where the field cut it