L'Officiel, 104-year-old French fashion bible, stripped by its new owners and collapsed

L'Officiel was founded in 1921 as a Paris fashion magazine and grew into a global franchise with editions in more than 20 countries. In April 2022, the Jalou family sold the company to AMTD International, a Hong Kong-based financial group. The purchase should have been a lifeline for the 101-year-old title.

Instead, the Jalou family alleged in 2026 that AMTD committed trademark infringement, tax fraud, and misuse of corporate assets. The Times reported that the new owners were "fraudulently running the publication into the ground" through a financial scheme that funnelled money to subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, leaving the French company with no profit. The asset-stripping allegedly violated the 2015 recovery plan that followed Éditions Jalou's earlier bankruptcy.

By 2026, at least seven international editions had ceased publication — including L'Officiel Brasil, Ukraine, Maroc, Baltic, Austria, Latvia, and Liechtenstein. The magazine's photographic archive was reported missing. The Paris police judiciary opened an investigation into the financial operations following a 2025 complaint. The Jalou family had not received all proceeds from the 2022 sale; funds were frozen in a Hong Kong bank account. Former CEO Benjamin Eymère launched legal proceedings for unfair dismissal.

The collapse took a 104-year-old pillar of French fashion publishing from a family-owned institution to a police investigation in four years. Marie-José Jalou told the press: "L'Officiel was the fashion bible. I will never give up on it."