A year after Louis Vuitton entered the beauty sphere with La Beauté, the house has debuted its first collaboration – and rather than looking beyond its own walls, it has turned to a fellow creative within the maison. Dame Pat McGrath, creative director of cosmetics, and Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of womenswear, have united for a limited-edition collection of eyes and lips, marking 130 years of the Monogram by adorning the storied canvas on cosmetics for the first time.
The partnership carries more history than most collaborations can claim. McGrath has painted the faces peppering Louis Vuitton’s runways for over two decades, most recently translating Ghesquière’s collections into their defining beauty looks. It’s a relationship shaped backstage through instinct and shorthand – and one that now transgresses beyond the runway to take permanent form. The collection isn’t inspired by the house’s fashion so much as extending it.
The split is clean but entirely considered. Monogram Dune, the softer of the two, draws on the shifting light of the desert, with a four-shade eyeshadow quad moving from icy white and rose gold to a hazy, softly metallised hematite grey. Alongside it comes a rosy beige satin lipstick and the Stellar Veil topper balm, with its holographic sparkle formulated to appear as light rather than glitter.
Monogram Infrarouge offers a sparkling anthracite and a velvety burgundy for the eye alongside a lipstick that deepens the house’s signature Monogram Rouge with an infusion of black that evolves into a rich blackcurrant hue. McGrath envisions both products to be worn by one woman – beiges through the day and a smoky eye paired with a stained red lip once the evening arrives.
Saying true to a luxury maison founded on luggage, the collection travels beyond the vanity, with Lipstick Pouches and Mini Vanities cut from the limited-edition canvases and blotting papers housed in its own Monogram sleeve. Everything is refillable, with Dune cased in matte off-white aluminium and warm rose gold hardware while Infrarouge is adorned in deep black with red lacquered precision – the finishes set the tone before the compact even opens.
Landing online on August 20 and in store from August 27, the collection is billed as the first chapter of many.
Photography courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
