Head make-up artist Lucia Pica decodes the beauty look from Chanel’s couture runway

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3rd Jul 2019

“You saw the set, this beautiful opulent library. When I imagined these women against this backdrop, I could see high-brow bookworms who have this elevated beauty,” Lucia Pica, Chanel’s global creative make-up and colour director, tells Vogue post Virginie Viard’s debut collection for Chanel’s haute couture autumn/winter ’19/’20 show. Pica’s approach has always been visionary and the result is a refined, outside-of-the-box approach to make-up.

For the Chanel couture clientele, the beauty cue is to juxtapose a strong boy brow with a feminine and über-fine eyeliner flick, stretched on the outer eye area but starting in the middle for an unexpected toughness. Make-up is often best when it contradicts itself—a bold eyebrow arch that makes way to a seemingly fragile sweep of black liner. Framing the eyes with no competition, the lip is natural. Pica even applied concealer on models’ lips to avoid any detraction from the eyes.

“I didn’t translate it straight into this idea of ‘a make-up look’, but instead I created this elongated eyebrow, but focused on the inner corners of the brows. This made it immediately more masculine, while the elongated finish added an aerodynamic elegance. It was all about confidence and authority,” she tells Vogue.

“Then I wanted to add a bit of attitude, something almost resembling a pretentious feeling, you know? So I started the Caligraphie de Chanel liner in the middle of the eye, and while I got the girls to look straight in front of them, I applied this elongated line that was exaggerated. All the while, I kept skin fresh with the Chanel Les Beiges Eau de Teint (Water Foundation), for some translucent coverage,” she explains.

Underpinning Viard’s debut Chanel couture collection—with the austerity of the library in the background—Pica strikes just the right balance between elevated and relatable beauty.

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