The Musée du Louvre and Lancôme have joined forces in an unprecedented collaboration. Inspired by nine masterpieces of sculpture, and by the lights and colours of the museum, Lancôme has created a new skincare and makeup collection: Lancôme x Louvre.
The launch campaign was shot at the Musée de Louvre, featuring the brand’s ‘faces’ Zendaya, Aya Nakamura, Amanda Seyfried and He Cong. Images of modern-day beauty, these four strong-minded women embrace and incarnate the stylistic codes and myths of certain iconic sculptures.
THE LOUVRE, A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
From the time of its founding in 1793, the Musée du Louvre was designed as a space where artists could learn from observing the works of great masters and draw inspiration for their own creations. Still today, the Louvre is a living museum and an endless source of inspiration for all creators, as the history of art continues to enlighten our era in a wide range of fields.
For this unprecedented partnership, Lancôme drew inspiration from the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Corinne, the Diana of Gabii, the Nymph with a Scorpion, Echo, Hygeia, the Venus of Arles and the Sleeping Hermaphrodite. Each one of these sculptures, by its story and the myth it represents, inspired Lisa Eldridge, Global Creative Director of Lancôme Makeup, to create this makeup collection.
‘I am delighted by this debut collaboration with Lancôme, which highlights with incredible talent the diversity of forms of beauty found in the Louvre collections – a dialogue between cultures and civilisations that transcends time and geography. Campaign ambassadresses like the Venus de Milo, the Nymph with a Scorpion and the Diana of Gabii are an opportunity for us to transport iconic and inspiring classical images, and to compare and contrast them with contemporary images and canons. The history of art and beauty, the “making” of beauty, the quest for beauty, are intimately linked. Pop culture – the culture of moving images, advertising, social media and our daily lives – is often inspired by these timeless images and representations, sometimes very scholarly, sometimes very ancient. The Musée du Louvre collections are surprising and captivating in their ability to provide a reading and an understanding of how these canons transform, how they can be interpreted, and how they evolve. With this collaboration, the Louvre as a modern-day artistic space is contributing to the rewriting of beauty in the present.’
Laurence des Cars, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre‘At Lancôme, beauty is art in motion; beauty itself, as a personal ritual, is a means of expressing and distinguishing oneself, through constantly evolving codes – or no codes, to be honest.
This unprecedented creative partnership with the Louvre is the cultural reflection of this conviction and our mission for beauty at Lancôme. By pursuing the dialogue between our French brand with a history spanning some 90 years and the most iconic temple of art, we want to continue to draw on our artistic heritage to open new beauty horizons for women today and celebrate the fact that beauty is in perpetual motion.’
Françoise Lehmann, Lancôme Global Brand President
