When you think of Louis Vuitton, what comes to mind? For me, it’s knock-off handbags being sold on the streets of Ibiza. It’s that monogrammed beige logo, showcased behind glass in a designer outlet, price-tagged at no less than £1,000. Vuitton is a harmonious blend of the high and the low: both ubiquitous and entirely unattainable. That’s luxury branding.
Next question: when you think of Pat McGrath, what do you picture? For me, it’s those iconic wet-look complexions from Paris Fashion Week 2024—porcelain skin, like a mirror made of gelatine. With a lustrous career stretching back to the 1980s, she has been crowned one of the most influential make-up artists in the world.
Now, what happens when you combine Vuitton and McGrath? Well, no need to imagine—it’s already happening. This week, the brand announced its collaboration with the legendary make-up artist for a line of (you guessed it) cosmetics. The range’s packaging is yet to be revealed but is said to reflect the hallmarks of the brand: leather, occasional bursts of colour, bold textures.
This is by no means a new phenomenon—McGrath has been collaborating with luxury fashion brands for over twenty years, having created a cosmetics line for Giorgio Armani in 1999. She has also been responsible for the make-up looks at Vuitton’s runway shows for several seasons. Speaking to Vogue, she remarked: “People have been asking me for years, ‘When is Louis Vuitton Beauty coming?’ and now we can say it is finally here!”
McGrath x Vuitton will see McGrath serve as “creative director” for the upcoming La Beauté range. A creative director in the world of big-name brand partnerships can mean many things (readers may recall Love Island alumna Molly-Mae Hague’s brief stint as creative director for PrettyLittleThing), but primarily, it means status. The status of the name, the status of those buying the product (and therefore getting to represent the name), and the status of the product itself. In press releases, McGrath repeatedly emphasises “luxury,” “artisanal approaches,” and “innovation.”
Luxury is certainly a business buzzword at present, particularly given the state of the cosmetics industry—an industry with yearly growth in the double digits. It can be difficult to determine whether this supposed industry excellence is due to genuine customer interest or simply rising prices. Luxury beauty specifically has experienced a boom in recent years, partially driven by Gen Z’s appetite for “trading up” (industry parlance for spending significant sums on premium products).
Ultimately, this upcoming Vuitton launch is almost certain to be a success—financially, promotionally, and in terms of maintaining the status quo. But for how long will consumers continue to pay for the promise of pure image, when the next big-name brand collaboration is always just around the corner?
Photo by Clarisse Croset on Unsplash