Dame Pat McGrath and Nicolas Ghesquière joined forces for Louis Vuitton’s first beauty collaboration, a limited-edition collection for eyes and lips.
It marks the first time Louis Vuitton La Beauté products will feature the house’s Monogram canvas, in Monogram Dune and Monogram Infrarouge for the eye shadow palettes.
“I’ve worked so many years with Nicolas backstage, and we have a real incredible shorthand between us,” said McGrath, creative director of cosmetics at Louis Vuitton. “We understand each other instinctively. There’s a deep trust, a real creative rhythm, so creating this collection was really like a natural next step.”
Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director, echoed that sentiment, saying: “It felt like a very natural progression.
“I’ve had a great creative dialogue with Dame Pat McGrath” over the years developing beauty looks backstage at Louis Vuitton shows, he said. “In many ways, La Beauté Louis Vuitton was already part of the story. This is simply giving it a new dimension. It grew organically from our collaboration, always inspired by the strong, confident and authentic women we design for.”
The color cosmetics project did not begin with a traditional brief.
“It was more a feeling,” McGrath said. “It’s the same electricity and emotion in the way that we build the shows. That’s what makes this feel so special to me. We had a lot of fun creating this together.”
She and Ghesquière exchanged ideas about the duality of women. Concurrently, the house of Louis Vuitton is celebrating the 130th anniversary of its Monogram.
The Monogram Infrarouge palette from Louis Vuitton’s first beauty collaboration.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
“That heritage became a real big, powerful source of inspiration,” McGrath said. “To reinterpret that through a contemporary beauty language felt incredibly exciting. It was about translating the codes of the house, especially the canvas, into textures and tones.”
They were channeled into emotions, too, McGrath said.
“For me, the packaging is not separate from the makeup,” she said, explaining it mirrors the shades inside the compacts. “It’s part of the fantasy, part of the experience, part of the story. Inside, the shades express two distinct but equally real dimensions of femininity.
“You have the deep, dark, mysterious dangerous feel, then you have this soft dune feel,” McGrath said.
Monogram Dune was inspired by the shifting beauty of a desert landscape, where light continuously transforms color and depth. “The palette was built on soft beiges, warm nudes,” McGrath said, adding it gives an elegance with effortless and beautiful soft, luminous colors, which are also powerful.
The LV Ombres 724 Monogram Dune Eyeshadow Palette has four shades. As part of that collection is the LV Rouge 724 Monogram Dune Satin Lipstick in rosy beige and the LV Baume 098 Stellar Veil Topper Lip Balm, with holographic sparkles.
From the Louis Vuitton Monogram Dune collection.
Courtesy
Conversely, McGrath said Monogram Infrarouge “is unapologetic, high-contrast, playing with blacks and reds.”
It is for a woman who loves contrasts, defines herself on her own terms and whose beauty commands attention without ever asking for permission, McGrath explained.
“It was really inspired by the drama of the Monogram Infrarouge canvas,” she said.
This collection includes LV Ombres 715 Monogram Infrarouge Eyeshadow Palette, in four shades, and Satin Lipstick in a redcurrant tone, plus the LV Baume 099 Galactic Veil Topper Lip Balm, with holographic glitter.
“I love the fact that when you’re creating for two separate worlds, two opposing worlds, you get this explosion of creativity,” McGrath said.
She believes the same person can step into the two worlds.
“Most people would like to play with both sides,” McGrath said, explaining that during the day someone might want to wear the soft beiges, then for nighttime switch to an ultimate smokey eye and stained red lip.
The LV Ombres retail for about $340 each, while the LV Rouge and LV Baume are priced at approximately $195 each. All the products are refillable.
The limited-edition makeup collection features a dedicated line of small leather goods and accessories, such as lipstick pouches and mini vanities, in the Monogram canvases, as well.
From Louis Vuitton’s Monogram Infrarouge collection.
Courtesy
The products will launch in China starting Monday, followed by online on Aug. 20 and in Louis Vuitton stores from Aug. 27.
The project will spawn others.
“We’re really at the beginning of this,” McGrath said. “It is our first collaboration, and I cannot wait to do more.”
