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Ahead of the Dior Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 2022-2023 show, GRAZIA’s Editor-in-Chief, Alison Tay, sat down with Peter Phillips, Creative and Image Director of Christian Dior Makeup, who created and styled the Dior makeup looks for the show, to talk women, whimsical beauty, and working with Maria Grazia.
GRAZIA: What kind of conversations did you have with Maria Grazia for this collection?
Peter Phillips: Maria wanted something simple, just a little colour on the cheeks and very luminous skin. I actually used the Dior Addict lipstick for for the blush because it’s not too creamy but gives a beautiful shiny glow. I used the Dior Forever foundation, because of its luminious finish, and two different shades of lipstick on the cheeks: Rosewood and Icon. For the eyes, we simply curled the lashes and added a little mascara, then added some of the dark shade from our eyeshadow palette. And finally, for the lips I used Rouge Dior Lip Balm in Satin Finish. It’s a lot of products for a simple look, but each one has its own function and supports the others.
GRAZIA: What comes first, the look for the show or Dior Beauty’s product offering? Do you dream up a face chart and develop the collection accordingly or develop a makeup collection and the look comes after?
Peter Phillips: We work at least two years ahead of time. The makeup look I’m working on right now is spring/summer 2024. We design the look by category – the eye looks, the foundation, the lipstick – and we think of our products tools. Like today, using the Dior Addict Lipstick as a blush. I work very closely with Maria to create the look.
GRAZIA: Dior Haute Couture has given us some of your most whimsical eye makeup looks from Pierrot eyes in spring/summer19 in Dubai to negative space graphic eyes in SS20. Is Haute Couture the space for fantasy or is Maria Grazia’s aesthetic as such that the looks always need to be grounded in reality for the real woman?
Peter Phillips: Even when we create quite conceptual makeup, we never want to make a woman look silly or clownish. It’s a balancing act. I want a woman to feel comfortable – and great in pictures, of course! But even then, how a look may appear behind a lens is different to how it will look on the runway. It’s about making sure you know when to do what, and seeing how far you can go with it.
GRAZIA: How do you think the approach to makeup today resonates with the themes of the world in 2022?
Peter Phillips: Since Maria Grazia has been at Dior, she has a voice and a platform, and we’re here to help complete her vision. The women we portray are always strong women, we never try to disguise them or make them looks like characters. We want to enhance their natural beauty, and I think that reflects what is happening in the world. Women are not just seen as pretty objects anymore, and Dior reflects that.
