15 YEARS, 15 ICONS
I can’t believe it’s been 15 years since makeup artist François Nars foisted a collection of 12 perfectly edited lipsticks on the beauty world and changed the way it pouted forever. Movie buff that I am, when I first saw these lipsticks I was attracted not only to their black rubber packaging and Fabien Baron-designed graphics — which was like nothing I’d ever encountered before — but also to their cinematic names like Funny Face, Casablanca, Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus.
Nars was one of the first to imbue cosmetics with a pop-culture cachet that only those in the know would get. Oh, Belle de Jour? Yes, Catherine Deneuve may have been beautifully perverse in that, but her nude ’60s lips were divine.
Nars continued this spirit of invention by introducing The Multiple multi-purpose makeup stick and Orgasm blush, which were so clever and convenient (the former) and universally flattering (the latter) that both became cult necessities in makeup bags across the globe.
Fifteen years later, the brand that Nars began — which was acquired by Shiseido in 2000 — is celebrating its trend-setting status by merging makeup and iconic figures in a limited-edition photography book, 15x15. Followers of the makeup maven know that Nars is also an accomplished photographer. In 15x15 he’s put together a new collection, not of makeup but of 15 celebrity portraits, each inspired by a Nars product name and iconic reference.
Nars has amassed quite a Rolodex of celebrity pals from the realms of fashion and film: in the book model Amber Valetta channels Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour (inspired by the beige-pink lipstick of the same name), tranny icon Amanda Lepore is featured as her eponymous doll (inspired by Jungle Red lipstick), and fashion designer Marc Jacobs appears as China Machado from a Richard Avedon photograph (inspired by Dovima nail polish). The other famous faces include Naomi Campbell, Isabella Rossellini, Shalom Harlow, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Carla Gugino, Daphne Guinness, Olivier Theyskens, Natasha Poly, Dayle Haddon, Tyson Ballou, Lisa Marie Smith and François Vincentelli.
And that’s not all: the chosen 15 are not just mannequins but guest editors who photographed their own interpretations of the Nars product that inspired their portrait, lending their own insights into the age-old question, “What’s in a name?”
Fifteen hundred 15X15 books will be produced, numbered and sold at www.15X15project.com starting mid-November for 30 days, after which they will be sold on www.narscosmetics.com. In the true holiday spirit of giving, all proceeds from the 15X15 project will be divided between the celebrities’ chosen charities. 
But perhaps nobody can explain the Nars effect better than the artist who started it all: says François about his forever fixation, “True icons are larger than life, unforgettable with an elegance that’s mesmerizingly timeless.”
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Nars is available at Rustan’s.
