Earlier this week, I met up with many of the editors and publishers from our 43 sister ELLE publications from around the world. The conference was held in Versailles—which meant I got to indulge in croissants and take in the Joana Vasconcelos Versailles exhibition at the Palace of Versailles. My favourite piece was the giant pair of stainless steel stilettos made from saucepans that were set up in the Hall of Mirrors. The Portuguese sculptor said the piece—which is called Marilyn in honour of Ms. Monroe—captured the “collision of great style and everyday life.”

The ELLE conference offered up its own collision of great style with editors from around the globe. Like any family reunion, you see that you share a common DNA, but each member of a tribe expresses it differently.

Click through to read more about the international ELLE editors!

Here’s how I would describe some of our talented and stylish siblings. For starters, ELLE Canada has a  “girl crush” on her big sis ELLE UK. She loves her wit, spunk and intelligence. Now that I’ve met the lovely editor, Lorraine Candy, I can see where that spirit comes from. ELLE France is the political one. She’s newsier and less fanciful than you’d expect for a Parisian, but after her recent design makeover she’s upped her posh quotient. The editor, Valerie Toranian, is an intellectual and fashionable force. ELLE China induces serious retail envy. She’s a clotheshorse and there isn’t a luxe label she doesn’t own or crave. The EIC Lena Yang induced serious editorial envy when she talked about the need to go to a semi-monthly publication because they couldn’t expect women to carry around a book that was 1,000 plus pages each month. (Even though that’s what ELLE Indonesia did when it recently released its 1,006 page 4th year anniversary edition!)

ELLE Italy—well, she’s va-va-voom, drop-dead sexy. Fashion forward, stylish and charismatic. I told the editor Danda Santini that this was how we described her book and she actually blushed. (Didn’t see that coming!) ELLE US is bold, ambitious and friendly, and ELLE Germany is minimalist and a little reserved and ELLE India—well, she’s a little like us in that she’s clearly influenced by her British sister.

So who is ELLE Canada in this mix? I’d like to think we’re one of the storytellers in the family. We’re a little quirky, we love a good laugh and we’re able to converse on a range of subjects from culture, society to the latest beauty and fashion trends. Like the Vasconcelos crochet-covered marble lions in the Queen’s guardroom, the ELLE gals—regardless of where we’re from—are known for our fearless strength and gentle femininity.