About Elle Vietnam

Elle Vietnam

Overview

Elle Vietnam is a Vietnamese fashion and beauty magazine published from Ho Chi Minh City at elle.vn, the Vietnamese edition of Elle, the French fashion magazine that is one of the world's largest fashion media brands. Known locally by its Vietnamese name, Phai Dep, meaning beauty, Elle Vietnam covers fashion, beauty, lifestyle, culture and the lives of Vietnamese women, combining international fashion content from the global Elle network with reporting, photography and features produced in Vietnam. It is aimed at urban, fashion-conscious Vietnamese women, and it has played a significant role in bringing international fashion journalism to Vietnam and in promoting Vietnamese designers to a wider audience.

Elle Vietnam's history includes a dramatic interruption that readers should understand. Launched in 2010 as Vietnam's first international fashion magazine, it closed in October 2020 when its Swiss publisher, Ringier, terminated its licence amid the advertising collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The magazine was later relaunched, and it operates today with a current website, recent issues cited in 2025 and 2026, and a presence on digital magazine platforms. That story of launch, closure and revival makes Elle Vietnam more than a fashion title: it is a marker of how Vietnam's media market, and its fashion industry, have developed over fifteen years, and of the resilience of a brand that Vietnamese readers and advertisers clearly wanted to keep.

History

Elle Vietnam was launched on 21 October 2010, in a partnership between Ringier Vietnam, a subsidiary of the Swiss media company Ringier, and Lagardère Active of France, under a licence agreement that brought the Elle brand to Vietnam. Ringier Vietnam, supported by its local partner, the Hanoi Women Entrepreneurs' Association, was pleased to announce the launch, and the first edition of Phai Dep-Elle was published on 21 October 2010, with advertising from leading international brands including Chanel, Estee Lauder and Rolex in the first issue. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha was editor-in-chief, and Huong Color was appointed managing editor. The launch was the fifteenth Elle launch since 2000, bringing the total number of Elle editions worldwide to forty-three, and the tenth in Asia. Thomas Trüb, general manager of Ringier Pacific, said Vietnam was the fastest growing market in Asia and its women consumers were leading the way, and that Elle would become a key partner in bringing the latest international fashion trends to Vietnam, identifying and promoting the country's talented young designers, and contributing to the sophistication of women's magazines in Vietnam.

Elle itself was founded in France in 1945 by Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, with the aim of creating a publication for the modern woman that celebrated her independence, style and role in society. By the time it reached Vietnam, it was one of the world's most recognised fashion brands, and its Vietnamese edition was presented as the first international fashion magazine available in the country. The online extension, elle.vn, was launched in 2012, giving the magazine a digital presence alongside its print edition and extending its reach to readers beyond newsstands.

The first era of Elle Vietnam ended in 2020. On 15 September 2020, Ringier announced that it would discontinue publication, explaining that Elle Vietnam's advertising revenues, which came mainly from the luxury and lifestyle industry, had fallen dramatically from month to month in 2020, and that no commercially viable solution could be found. Ringier Vietnam decided to terminate the Elle licence agreement with the French Groupe Lagardère, and its two Elle Vietnam offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were closed at the end of October 2020, affecting forty-seven employees in the editorial and commercial offices. Benjamin Gajkowski, head of Ringier Asia, said the decision was extremely difficult and sad, noting that the Elle Vietnam team had achieved its historically best topline and operating results in 2019 and had been full of innovative plans, but that changed legal conditions for running a media title in Vietnam and the rapidly deteriorating market situation caused by the coronavirus crisis had completely changed the cornerstones of the business. The last printed edition under Ringier was published on 22 October 2020, and the discontinuation also affected the online extension elle.vn.

The magazine was later relaunched, and the current Elle Vietnam is the product of that revival. The precise corporate arrangements of the relaunched title are not documented in the public sources consulted for this profile, and no new publisher is asserted here. What is established is operational: elle.vn is live and described as a leading Vietnamese fashion and lifestyle medium, its content appears on the Magzter digital magazine platform, whose application was updated in August 2026, and issues from January 2025 and 2026 are cited in the inventory. Elle Vietnam therefore stands today as a revived title, carrying the same brand and the same fashion mission into a Vietnamese media market that has changed considerably since its first launch.

Programming and Content

Elle Vietnam's content follows the classic formula of a fashion magazine, adapted to Vietnamese readers. Fashion is the core: seasonal trends, runway coverage from Paris, Milan, New York and London, styling advice, and features on Vietnamese designers and the Vietnamese fashion industry. Beauty coverage includes skincare, makeup, hair and wellness, with product recommendations and tutorials aimed at Vietnamese women. Lifestyle content extends to travel, food, interiors, relationships and careers, and the magazine carries celebrity interviews and cultural features that place fashion within a wider conversation about women's lives. The Vietnamese edition combines material from the global Elle network with locally produced content, so that a reader encounters both international fashion and Vietnamese faces, designers and stories.

Photography is central to the magazine's identity, as it is for fashion publishing generally. Elle Vietnam's print issues and its website use fashion photography to carry much of their storytelling, and its covers, featuring Vietnamese and international models and celebrities, are among its most visible editorial statements. Digital content extends the print offering with shorter, faster pieces, video, and social-media-led features that suit mobile reading. The magazine's tone is aspirational but accessible: it presents luxury fashion alongside practical advice, and it addresses readers as women making choices about style, work and life, rather than as passive consumers of glamour.

Elle Vietnam has also played a role in developing Vietnam's fashion industry. From its launch, its stated ambition was to identify and promote talented young Vietnamese designers, and its coverage has given local designers a platform alongside international brands. That role matters in a country whose fashion industry has grown rapidly, with Vietnamese designers gaining international attention and with a domestic luxury market that has expanded alongside rising incomes. A fashion magazine that takes local design seriously helps to build the audience, the criticism and the commercial ecosystem on which a national fashion industry depends.

Audience and Reach

Elle Vietnam's audience is urban Vietnamese women with an interest in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi but reaching readers across the country through its website and digital platforms. Its readers are typically younger and middle-aged women with disposable income and an engagement with fashion as a form of self-expression and social identity. The magazine's advertising base reflects that audience: luxury and lifestyle brands, beauty and skincare companies, fashion retailers and premium consumer goods, the same categories that sustained its first era and whose collapse in 2020 brought that era to an end.

No current, audited circulation or readership figure for Elle Vietnam is asserted in this profile, because none has been found in a reliable public source. Its historical scale can be glimpsed from the first era: a national fashion monthly with offices in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and a team of forty-seven editorial and commercial staff at closure, a substantial operation by Vietnamese magazine standards. Its current reach is digital-first, through elle.vn and platforms such as Magzter, and the inventory describes elle.vn as a leading Vietnamese fashion and lifestyle medium. That description, together with the citation of recent issues, indicates a title that has regained a visible position in Vietnamese fashion media after its relaunch, even if its precise audience size is not publicly documented.

Elle Vietnam's influence extends beyond its direct readers. Fashion magazines shape taste, set the agenda for designers and retailers, and provide the imagery through which a society discusses beauty and identity. In Vietnam, where fashion has become an important cultural and commercial force, Elle Vietnam's covers, editorials and designer coverage contribute to a national conversation about style that reaches readers who may never buy the magazine but encounter its images on social media and in stores.

Digital Presence

Elle Vietnam's digital presence is centred on its website, elle.vn, which publishes fashion, beauty and lifestyle content in Vietnamese and serves as the magazine's daily updated face to readers. The website extends the monthly print rhythm with continuous online publishing, allowing the title to respond to fashion news, celebrity stories and seasonal trends between issues. Its content also appears on Magzter, the digital magazine platform, whose application was updated in August 2026, giving readers access to digital editions of the magazine on phones and tablets. Social media is central to fashion publishing, and Elle Vietnam's imagery and stories circulate on the platforms where Vietnamese fashion audiences spend their time, particularly Facebook and Instagram.

The digital history of the title mirrors its print history. The original elle.vn, launched in 2012, was discontinued along with the print edition in October 2020, when Ringier ended the licence. The current elle.vn is the relaunched title's website, and its operation in 2025 and 2026 confirms that the brand's digital presence has been rebuilt alongside its print return. For readers, the practical consequence is straightforward: Elle Vietnam is available today primarily online, through its website and digital editions, with print issues continuing as part of its offering.

Ownership and Organisation

Elle Vietnam's ownership history has two distinct chapters. The first chapter, from 2010 to 2020, was Ringier Vietnam, the local subsidiary of the Swiss Ringier group, operating under a licence from Lagardère Active of France, with the Hanoi Women Entrepreneurs' Association as a local partner. That chapter ended on 15 September 2020, when Ringier announced the termination of the licence agreement and the closure of its Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi offices at the end of October 2020. The second chapter, the relaunched title operating today, is not documented in the public sources consulted for this profile with respect to its current publisher or licence holder, and no publisher is asserted here for the current incarnation. Readers should understand that the Elle brand in Vietnam has continued under new arrangements since the Ringier closure, but that the details of those arrangements are not publicly established in the sources available.

No current editor-in-chief for Elle Vietnam is named in this profile, because no reliably sourced current holder of that role has been found. The launch editor-in-chief was Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, with Huong Color as managing editor, and those names belong to the title's first era. The current editorial team, whatever its composition, produces a magazine and website whose content, design and fashion judgement carry the Elle identity forward in Vietnam. The title operates within Vietnam's press licensing system, under which magazines operate with a licence and a managing organisation, and its content reflects the conventions of licensed Vietnamese lifestyle publishing.

Contact and Availability

Elle Vietnam is available online at elle.vn, in Vietnamese, to anyone with internet access, and its digital editions are available through platforms such as Magzter. Print issues are available through the usual Vietnamese magazine distribution channels, and the title's fashion and beauty content is accessible to readers in Vietnam and to Vietnamese readers abroad. There is no English-language edition; readers who do not read Vietnamese will find its content largely inaccessible except through machine translation, though its photography speaks a more international language than its text.

For Vietnamese readers interested in fashion, Elle Vietnam remains, after its interruption and revival, one of the country's leading fashion media brands, and its current operation in 2026 confirms that the title has found a second life. For anyone following Vietnam's fashion industry or its media market, its history offers a compact lesson: a global brand, a local team, a market shock that ended the first venture, and a revival that testifies to the enduring appetite of Vietnamese readers for fashion journalism of international standard, produced with Vietnamese voices.