The collaboration that fashion insiders have been waiting for since the McGrath Ghesquière Louis Vuitton beauty axis was first established backstage has now arrived in physical form. Dame Pat McGrath, creative director of cosmetics for Louis Vuitton’s La Beauté, and Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of womenswear, have united on a limited-edition collection of eyes and lips that also marks 130 years of the Monogram, placing the house’s storied canvas on cosmetics for the first time.
It is, as these things go, a collaboration with genuine provenance. McGrath has worked the faces on Louis Vuitton’s runways for over two decades, building with Ghesquière a shared instinct for what a beauty look should say about a collection. The shorthand that develops backstage over that length of time is not easily replicated, and what this collection does is make that shorthand visible. These are not beauty products inspired by fashion, exactly; they are the fashion translated into a different medium.
Two Palettes, One Woman: The Monogram Dune and Infrarouge Collections
The collection arrives in two distinct chapters. Monogram Dune draws on the shifting light of the desert: a four-shade eyeshadow quad moves from icy white and rose gold through to a softly metallised hematite grey, accompanied by a rosy beige satin lipstick. The Stellar Veil topper balm, formulated so that its holographic sparkle reads as light rather than glitter, completes the palette. Monogram Infrarouge takes a darker hand, sparkling anthracite and velvety burgundy for the eye, and a lipstick that deepens the house’s signature Monogram Rouge with an infusion of black until it resolves into a rich blackcurrant hue.
McGrath’s vision is that both palettes belong to the same woman, and the same day: the beiges carried through daylight hours, the smoky eye and stained red lip arriving with the evening. It is a practical construction, dressed in the language of luxury.
According to VIE Magazine, the LV Rouge Complete Lipstick is priced at $160, the LV Baume Complete Lip Balm at $160, and the LV Ombres Complete Eyeshadows at $250. These are not impulse purchases, but then La Beauté has never positioned itself as such. The pricing places the collection firmly within the upper register of prestige beauty, where the object itself is understood to be part of the proposition.
McGrath Ghesquière Louis Vuitton: The Packaging and the Accessories
The collection extends beyond the vanity, as one might expect from a house whose foundations are in luggage. Lipstick Pouches and Mini Vanities are cut from the limited-edition canvases, and blotting papers are housed in their own Monogram sleeve. VIE Magazine also notes that limited-edition Lipstick Pouches and Nice Beauty Cases will be released in three shades that mirror the collection’s heroes: Monogram Rouge, Rouge Louis, and Tender Bliss. Everything is refillable. Dune is cased in matte off-white aluminium with warm rose gold hardware; Infrarouge is finished in deep black with red lacquered precision. The case sets a tone before the compact even opens, which is exactly how it should work at this level.
The Pat McGrath site describes the wider La Beauté launch as a bold move into the beauty industry, and in the context of this collaboration it is not difficult to see the ambition at work. A line that debuted roughly a year ago has already secured a creative partnership with the artistic director of the house’s womenswear, the kind of internal alignment that takes years to build and cannot be manufactured quickly.
The collection lands on louisvuitton.com on 20 August, with in-store availability from 27 August. Louis Vuitton has described it as the first chapter of many, which suggests that the McGrath and Ghesquière axis will continue to shape what La Beauté becomes, a prospect that, given what this first collection shows, is worth taking seriously.
