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Korea Herald
an hour ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Louis Vuitton launches first-ever beauty line 'La Beaute Louis Vuitton' in Korea
Louis Vuitton will officially launch its first beauty collection, La Beaute Louis Vuitton, in South Korea on Aug. 29, marking the luxury fashion house's cosmetics sector debut. The collection features three product categories. LV Rouge, a lipstick line available in 55 shades — inspired by the Roman numerals for 55 represented by the brand's LV initials — leads the lineup. Also included are LV Baume, a sheer, glow-infused lip balm offered in 10 shades, and LV Ombres, eight eye shadow palettes each containing four shades. German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic led the product design, with an emphasis on sustainability. The packaging uses refillable aluminum and brass components, reducing plastic usage while enhancing durability. Renowned makeup artist Pat McGrath, known for her pioneering influence in the beauty industry, is the creative director for the line. 'La Beaute Louis Vuitton is the culmination of exceptional craftsmanship and innovation,' McGrath said. 'This collection opens a new dimension in luxury beauty.' Global digital preorders will begin Monday, with select Louis Vuitton stores and the brand's official website offering the collection starting Aug. 29. In Korea, a three-story pop-up store will open Sept. 1 at the Louis Vuitton Dosan store in Seoul, offering an immersive experience with the new line.
NDTV
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Louis Vuitton Is Selling Lipsticks Worth Rs 14,000. Who Will Buy, Asks Instagram
In a world where luxury is no longer defined solely by haute couture or handbags, Louis Vuitton is betting that beauty is the next frontier. The renowned brand is entering the beauty space with a makeup range that only a fashion juggernaut could pull off. On Tuesday, the French maison officially launched La Beaute Louis Vuitton, its first-ever makeup collection, in collaboration with legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath. But what's making headlines isn't just the collaboration - it's the price tag. So, how much is a single Louis Vuitton lipstick worth? Approximately Rs 14,000 (or USD 160). Meanwhile, an eyeshadow palette comes in at around Rs 21,000 (USD 250). Naturally, the Internet had opinions. "Absolutely tone-deaf and honestly desperate-looking. This brings nothing of worth to the beauty table - just another logo-cashing venture to be dispensed to influencers for TikTok posting," one user commented. Another wrote, "There is no reason a lipstick should cost USD 160. For that price, it should apply itself to my lips." A third chimed in, "There is absolutely no justifiable reason for this." And perhaps that's exactly the point. Louis Vuitton isn't just selling makeup - it's selling a very specific kind of luxury, one that doesn't blink at four-digit receipts for beauty products. The packaging alone, designed by acclaimed industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, features collectible cases embellished with the house's iconic Monogram and Damier motifs. The launch, first teased in March, officially kicks off in China on August 20, followed by a global digital release on August 25. It will then arrive in select Louis Vuitton boutiques and on online platforms worldwide starting August 29. While fashion houses like Chanel, Dior, and YSL have long used cosmetics as accessible entry points into their brand universes, Louis Vuitton has taken a different path. Instead of courting the masses, it's doubling down on its core clientele - the ultra-wealthy consumers who don't just buy luxury; they live it. And while the rest of the beauty industry braces for slowed growth and more budget-conscious shoppers, Louis Vuitton is, in essence, shrugging. Why sell millions of units when you can sell hundreds - at USD 160 a pop? If there's one thing Louis Vuitton is counting on, it's that the right kind of customer won't ask that question at all.
Tatler Asia
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
Louis Vuitton unveils La Beauté Louis Vuitton with legendary makeup guru Pat McGrath at its helm
Above At the heart of La Beauté Louis Vuitton lies 55 shades of lipstick expression: a subtle and ingenious nod to the Roman numerals for LV Above Every single shade uniquely crafted and selected by Pat McGrath are meant to be all-at-once universally flattering but brilliantly visionary 'Make-up is culture. It's power. Its presence. And it's personal. Luxury in make-up is about performance, craftsmanship, and sensoriality. It's about textures that feel exquisite, colors that captivate, and formulas that perform flawlessly." - Pat McGrath - Above The lipstick range offers two exquisite finishes, each delivering richly pigmented colour: matt and satin Above Industrial designer Konstantin Grcic brings architectural clarity to the design of the La Beauté Louis Vuitton range For a house that has crafted exquisite leather goods dedicated to the art of beauty since its inception, this expansion is a natural, albeit highly anticipated, evolution. Louis Vuitton's journey began in 1854 with bespoke vanity cases designed to protect a lady's most delicate toiletries. By the 1920s, this had blossomed into luxurious powder compacts, ornate brushes and elegant mirrors, cementing the Maison's place in the boudoirs of the world's most discerning clientele. Masterpieces like the 'Le Milano', a marvel of leatherwork and goldsmithery from 1925, and the custom toiletry cases for soprano Marthe Chenal and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski, are living proof of a long-held commitment to beauty. Read also: 5 tailored dining experiences by fashion's most stylish brands Above This rich heritage of practicality and elegance continues to inspire the La Beauté Louis Vuitton collection. 'True luxury is when every detail is considered—from the way the pigment melts into the skin to the way a lipstick feels in your hand. It's the fusion of artistry and technology, of heritage and innovation.' - Pat McGrath - Above Complementing the spirit of elegance in motion, a dedicated line of small leather goods has also been designed to accompany La Beauté Louis Vuitton More recently, the global success of Les Parfums Louis Vuitton—with scents like L'Immensité, Ombre Nomade, Imagination and Attrape-Rêves becoming modern classics among its 30 fragrance references—proved the Maison's innate ability to capture emotion and elegance in a bottle. Now, that same savoir-faire is being applied to colour and texture. Photo 1 of 4 The LV Ombres collection introduces a new language for the eyes Photo 2 of 4 The collection explores six finishes, from ultra-matt to gleaming glitter, allowing for transformation at every glance, from soft-sculpting to boldly cinematic Photo 3 of 4 Each LV Ombres palette is more than colour - the haute formulation has been composed of meticulously selected ingredients, embodying Louis Vuitton's innovative approach to beauty Photo 4 of 4 Each palette is composed of four eyeshadows that comprise three wearable, everyday shades, with one unexpected twist This new universe is uniquely positioned, weaving together the pillars of the house: the art of storytelling, the art of travel and the art of living. Product names will invite exploration, honouring the Maison's rich history and iconic codes. The art of travel, central to Louis Vuitton's identity, is honoured through a range of exquisite, dedicated leather goods. Imagine a lipstick pouch in the iconic Monogram canvas or a miniature trunk designed to house your favourite shades—transforming a daily ritual into an act of pure luxury. Culminating this vision is the art of living, embodied by a handcrafted vanity trunk, a modern heirloom combining heritage craftsmanship with a unique beauty experience for clients and friends of the Maison. Above The vivid hues are designed to glide seamlessly onto the skin Under McGrath's visionary guidance, the debut collection promises meticulous attention to formula and innovation, with all production based in France. The initial launch will feature 55 lipsticks—a nod to the Roman numeral LV—along with 10 nourishing lip balms and eight eyeshadow palettes, each containing a quartet of sublime colours. Above La Beauté Louis Vuitton is a story that goes beyond the products themselves and represents the This is more than just makeup; it is the Louis Vuitton legacy, distilled into objects of desire that are both timeless and utterly of the moment. Mark your calendars: La Beauté Louis Vuitton will be available online on August 25 and in-store on August 29, 2025. In the Philippines, it will be exclusively available at Louis Vuitton's store in Greenbelt 3. The wait, we suspect, will be well worth it. NOW READ: Lipstick Day 2025: 21 best lip products for long-lasting colour and hydration 8 best sunscreens to use for ultimate sun protection Foundation for change: How make-up can be used for activism, cultural reclamation and empowerment
Business of Fashion
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
Louis Vuitton Tests the Limits of Luxury Beauty With $160 Lipsticks
On Tuesday, fashion house Louis Vuitton unveiled its modern debut makeup collection, La Beauté Louis Vuitton, designed in partnership with the famed makeup artist Pat McGrath, originally teased in March. The range includes 55 lipsticks and 10 lip balms at $160 each and eight eyeshadow palettes, priced at $250. The line will launch on Aug. 20 in China, followed by a worldwide digital pre-launch on Aug. 25; it will then be available from Aug. 29 online and in select Louis Vuitton stores globally. The range has all the trappings of luxury, incorporating elements of the fashion house's Monogram and Damier motifs in packaging created by the industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, known for his conceptual furniture pieces. Refills are $69 and $92 for lips and eyes respectively. (Circularity is, of course, another luxury.) A range of small leather goods, including a lipstick pouch and a wallet to house blotting papers, will also be available; the eyeshadows are imbued with ingredients like camellia oil, while the lip balms use an upcycled mimosa wax sourced from the perfumery district of Grasse in France. La Beauté Louis Vuitton is not a complete outlier in terms of price. Fellow LVMH stablemates Dior launched a special edition lipstick priced at $500 in 2023, the same year Guerlain released its limited fragrance at an eyewatering $27,000. And of course, Louis Vuitton's existing perfume range starts at $350, with an ultra-premium range called Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Collection from $670. But at $160 for a permanent collection of lipsticks or balms, it's almost twice the price of Hermés Silky Lipstick, $80, which raised elegantly shaped eyebrows when it debuted in 2020, and blows past The ($113) Precious Lipstick from Japanese brand Clé de Peau Beauté, often the ne plus ultra of price. 'There's always going to be a market for a desirable heritage asset,' said Marigay McKee, co-founder of beauty brand incubator Violet Lab and former chief merchant at Harrods and Saks Fifth Avenue. '[Louis] Vuitton has waited such a long time to offer cosmetics that customers are terribly excited… The heritage is there. But quality has to be there, not just the aesthetic.' The bullets are embossed with the signature logo. The eyeshadow palettes are $250. The balm is priced at $160, in a range of shades. Louis Vuitton's choice to launch the products at such a premium price represents something of a divergence from the traditional designer beauty playbook. Historically, while still pricier than their mass or masstige counterparts, products from the likes of Chanel or YSL Beauté are priced at a more accessible level than their leather goods or fashion lines. A standard Dior lipstick, for example, is around $47. Many premium beauty brands are finding it harder to grow their sales as price-sensitive customers trade down to cheaper alternatives or reduce their purchase frequency. According to The State of Fashion: Beauty Volume 2 report by The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company, 63 percent of consumers do not consider premium brands to be higher performing than mass brands, and 24 percent of customers have traded down to cheaper products in the last 12 months. With a price tag that will deter many customers, Louis Vuitton is more able to focus on what it clearly identifies as its core customer: the ultra-wealthy. Who Wants to Spend $160 on Lipstick? Much like in the luxury fashion world, the prices of prestige beauty products have tracked up since the end of 2021, with companies taking advantage of new pockets of wealth and renewed interest in categories like skincare and fragrance. However, customers have become increasingly attuned to value for money. Lower-priced brands such as E.l.f. Beauty and Kiko Milano, while not necessarily direct competitors with fashion house brands, have proven they can compete on performance. McKee said that Louis Vuitton's competition is in some ways more artistry-led brands than fashion house brands — the likes of Westman Atelier and Fara Homidi, and even Victoria Beckham Beauty, which has become arguably more popular than its clothing enterprise. Pat McGrath also has her own prestige line, Pat McGrath Labs, which offers weighty $128 eyeshadow palettes and $69 foundation. '[Louis Vuitton] is up against the expertise of the best makeup artists in the world,' said McKee. 'Some people will just pay for the branding, but it can't just be hype. The product has to live up to the expectation, or they'll only have good sales at launch.' The line will likely benefit from the operational muscle of its parent company. While lines such as YSL Beauté and Gucci are crafted via license agreements with conglomerates like L'Oréal and Coty respectively, within its parent company LVMH, Louis Vuitton is able to utilise the same capabilities that power the likes of Dior and Benefit Cosmetics. Distribution will be another piece of the puzzle. While the line will be initially available only in Louis Vuitton's owned retail stores, where its presence and visual merchandising can be tightly controlled, some extension into speciality or department stores will likely be necessary to scale up and become a meaningful part of the company's revenue: Hermés has subsequently entered the likes of Macy's and Nordstrom after initially being available only in its own stores. McKee said she expects the company will still control it meticulously: 'It's going to be a long-term game of chess, not a quick game of checkers,' she said. In a press release, McGrath acknowledged the exacting nature of luxury beauty. 'I have always been obsessed with the smallest of details: the perfection needed in product texture, the precise application methods… how products should make you feel,' she said. 'I always like to push boundaries with makeup — and this métier is no different.' Sign up to The Business of Beauty newsletter, your complimentary, must-read source for the day's most important beauty and wellness news and analysis. Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholders' documentation guaranteeing BoF's complete editorial independence.
New York Times
06-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
This English Design Company Embraces a Reset
Ask nearly anyone with any kind of tenure in the design industry about Established & Sons, and their first response is likely to be the same: 'I remember the parties.' For a brief but intense period following its creation in 2005, the English design company generated an exceptionally high volume of buzz. Certainly this was a credit to its envelope-pushing furniture and fixtures, produced in collaboration with a large stable of boldfaced designer names, including Konstantin Grcic, Amanda Levete and Sebastian Wrong, one of the brand's founding partners. Yet it was also, without question, a product of Established & Sons's fabulous, celebrity-studded evening affairs. A quick spin through the event-photography archives tells the tale. Zaha Hadid with Alasdhair Willis, a co-founder of the company, who is married to Stella McCartney, at the launch party in London. Scarlett Johansson at the first anniversary party in 2006. Gwyneth Paltrow at the company's gallery opening in 2007. 'A lot of authoritative people at the time said we were too extravagant, too indulgent,' recalled Mr. Wrong. 'It should be noted that those people were always in attendance.' Above all, there was one place where fans and critics of the brand were sure to turn up: in Milan, during the city's sprawling Salone del Mobile trade fair, where the company first exhibited the year after its debut and where it maintained a consistent presence into the late 2010s. Now, nearly two decades since it arrived, Established & Sons is back in town — albeit in a very different form and in a much-changed design-world context. This spring, the company announced a new partnership with a pair of major corporate investors, intended to give Established & Sons a full commercial reset. 'We had a number of suitors,' said Steve McGuire, a former Established & Sons managing director, who is staying on as a board member under the new leadership 'We needed somebody who understood our DNA, what makes us tick.' Long in the works, the addition of the new stakeholders — Global Design Distribution, or G.D.D., in Shanghai, which helps high-end furniture manufacturers find markets, and JNBY, a billion-dollar fashion conglomerate in Hangzhou, China — already appears to have injected vitality into the brand. This week, at a small venue in the Brera district, Established & Sons is marking its 20th anniversary with its first installation in Milan since before the pandemic. 'It's a gentle launch, but we're going to keep building,' said Pol Mauri, the company's creative lead and an employee since 2017. Modest in scale, and aimed at a fairly limited professional audience, the Established & Sons collection on view this week in the Urban Hive hotel comprises older work from the brand's salad days — Philippe Malouin's modish Mollo chair from 2014, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's ultraplush Quilt seating from 2009 — and two recently commissioned pieces that signal the fresh start upon which the company is looking to embark. From the Japanese-born, New York City-based designer Nao Tamura comes the Tiki lamp, with a conical base that supports a shade of unmistakably birdlike aspect, white and black and not a little Hitchcockian. On a lighter note, the Gelato lamp is a playful, suitably tasty-looking fixture whose cartoony hues and contours seem straight out of Italy's Radical design movement of the 1960s. In fact, they are. Originally conceived more than half a century ago, the revamped Gelato emerged from Mr. Mauri's chance encounter (in Milan, naturally) with the work of the now 89-year-old designer Carlo Nason, whose catalog quickly fired the imagination of the Established team. (Tiki is also an update, of a product Ms. Tamura introduced in 2015.) 'We fell in love with everything, but we had to choose what we thought would work best,' Mr. Mauri said. In addition to its obvious visual appeal, the lamp's technical particulars could be readily tailored to the needs of 21st-century sourcing and production. In combining the nostalgic with the contemporary, Established & Sons is living up to the premise contained in its name, a commitment to mixing new and old that has distinguished the brand from the beginning. Production and sourcing, on the other hand, were not previously known to be among the company's strong suits. Established & Sons burst on the scene when Mr. Wrong and his fellow designers Mr. Willis, Mark Holmes and Tamara Caspersz (originally director of business development) joined forces with Angad Paul. A businessman and sometime film producer, Mr. Paul was also the heir to a steel-manufacturing fortune. Ms. McCartney made the connection. 'All five are 36, photogenic and at similar life stages,' observed the Times of London, shortly after Established made its initial splash. With help from Mr. Paul's seed financing, the brand hosted spectacles in Milan, often at the city's La Pelota athletic facility, featuring eye-catching work like Jasper Morrison's austere Crate furniture and Barber Osgerby's beguiling, polychrome Iris tables. But the momentum stopped in 2015, after setbacks at the Paul family firm reportedly drove its energetic scion into a state of severe depression. Mr. Paul died from a fall from his London penthouse balcony that November, in what authorities ruled was a suicide. In the ensuing interval, Established & Sons struggled to regain its footing. Under a deal overseen by Vincent Frey, a French design entrepreneur, a new ownership consortium took control of the company in late 2016. Months later, Mr. Wrong, who had departed in 2012, returned to help right the ship. Doing so would require no small amount of effort: By the time of Mr. Paul's death, the brand had reportedly accumulated shareholder debt amounting to more than £15 million (more than $29 million today). 'The company was facing a lot of difficulties getting back on its feet,' said Ramzi Wakim, a Swiss investor who took a majority stake as part of the 2016 shake-up. 'We had to streamline and restructure.' Part of that meant trying to manufacture things the company could practically make and that people would reliably buy. Ms. Hadid's Aqua table, for example, had an uneven surface and retailed for £40,000 ($51,517). Following its Salone-week debut, the product did sell out its limited-edition run, and it helped touch off a vogue for 'starchitect'-designed furniture that seemed to confirm Established & Sons's status as aesthetic pioneers. Yet in hindsight, much of the company's output under its previous leadership points to what Mr. McGuire calls a 'money-is-no-object approach,' as opposed to one focused on fabricating, shipping and selling usable objects. One pandemic, a number of Brexit-related disruptions and a few more staff switches later (Mr. Wrong left again two years ago, this time for the office-design specialists Orangebox), and today Established & Sons is ready to show that it has learned the fundamentals. The addition of the two Chinese backers could give the company access to resources and clients that were previously out of reach, building on a longstanding distributor relationship with G.D.D. that grew to include the multinational JNBY as a major buyer, with about 2,000 stores. For Xiao Lu, who co-founded G.D.D. with her husband, Yu Wang, uniting with the English brand was an opportunity for the American-educated couple to pair their enthusiasm for international design with their connections in East Asia and their grasp of its regional economy. When G.D.D.'s board was choosing between different prospective partnerships, Ms. Lu said, 'Everyone voted for Established & Sons.' In a competitive global marketplace, the change in direction certainly appears to demonstrate Established & Sons's eagerness to cast aside its prodigal image in favor of a leaner, smarter approach to the design business. The glittering La Pelota of the past is very different from the current understated space, and the new pieces being shown there evince at least some of the maturity that Mr. Mauri said the company now possesses. At the same time, all parties seem to agree that the wild spirit of the enterprise must be preserved if the new venture is to succeed. It was an imperative that colored the decision to rejoin the Salone festivities. 'If there's one place you have to be, it's Milan,' Mr. Wakim said. 'That's where it all started.'
