THE EVOLUTION OF Elle

SO INFLUENTIAL THAT SHE’S KNOWN BY JUST ONE NAME, ELLE MACPHERSON DELVES INTO THE RAW TRUTH OF WHAT IT TOOK TO BUILD HER EPONYMOUS EMPIRE.

- EMILY PIDGEON

When the sun shines across Sydney’s North Shore, it’s easy to see how Elle Macpherson’s childhood home shaped her quintessentially Australian persona; a charm that ripples through her rich decades-long business empire.

Making a name for herself as ‘The Body’ at a time when print magazines were pop culture bibles, the Sony Walkman was life and women wore power suits with oversized shoulder pads while fighting to stand out in a man’s world, the supermodel needs no introduction. So influential is she that only one name is required.

Fast-forward four decades and the model-turned business founder is as powerful as ever. She now lives in the US and leads one of the world’s most successful e-commerce wellness companies, WelleCo. But her continued career success is no accident. Following in her self-made father’s footsteps, Elle identified lucrative licensing opportunities very early in her career. She first dipped her toes into the business world when she trademarked her name in 1994, founding Elle Macpherson Inc, which she used as a venture into other enterprises. It saw her become an “accidental” entrepreneur.

“I’ve always had an interest in business, and I was motivated in the beginning to be financially independent and free,” Elle tells The CEO Magazine in an exclusive interview. “First, modelling was a job, a way to earn an income to finance my education. Then I built a career and a brand from modelling, after which I applied that brand to create a business. I started licensing my name and image to enrich that in 1989 and it became my business model – excuse the pun.

“Today, I’ve evolved, and I no longer license my name, preferring to create my own business, WelleCo. I’m a shareholder and sit on the board. WelleCo is a business created as a result of my own personal experience and interest in wellness.”