Elle Plus anticipates aging Japan

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 9, 2008 at 12:47 am | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends |

CanCam, which released its big-sister version AneCan last year, is not the only magazine anticipating Japan’s ageing population: this month Elle Japon released Elle Plus, a supplementary insert for the 40 plus demographic. While both regular Elle and Elle Girl feature Hillary Duff on their April covers, Elle Plus has Carla Bruni on the front and interviews with other 40 and fabulous women inside.

There is no question that more and more women in Japan are reaching 40 (then, say, 20) so we are beginning to see a lot more media targeted at this age group. With the few other magazines targeting middle aged women, like Hers and Croissant, portraying classical (read: conservative) images of beauty along with the usual articles on yoga and vitamin supplements, Elle Plus stands out for showing forty year old women in mini-skirts.

Elle, by far the most successful of the foreign glossy franchises (with a respectable 100,000+ circulation), also seems to be tapping into the success of the CanCam “senzoku” strategy of establishing a stable of models who appear exclusively and regularly in the magazine. A feature in the April issue introduces 30 new faces for the magazine. Each of the spindly young blonds is caught on camera looking “fresh and innocent” making cute poses more in the style of Ebi-chan than Kate Moss.

Tags: Fashion, Greying Society, magazines
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
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