François Nars: ‘There Are No Rules to Makeup — Never Stop Experimenting’
François Nars is a beauty industry leader. (Photo: Patrick Demarchelier)
As founder and creative director of the color-driven line NARS, makeup artist François Nars is practically a living legend. The fact that the Frenchman has been enamored with beauty since he was a kid only highlights his love for color (think: NARS Schiap, Dragon Girl, the list goes on), texture, and imagery. Though well-known as a runway makeup artist in his early years (he still does Marc Jacobs’s shows), these days you’re more likely to find him behind a camera shooting NARS campaign imagery or developing the next season’s colors at his own private island in the South Pacific, which he calls an “artist’s paradise.” Here, he talks about how it all began.
I was born and raised in the southwest of France, just outside of Biarritz. Growing up, I would skip school to go to the movie theater. I watched a lot of movies. It was practically empty during the week, so I would just skip school and watch fabulous European movies! I wasn’t going to see blockbusters, but the really underground movies. It was really the best thing I’ve ever done.
François Nars spent his early years in France (Photo: François Nars Archive)
At a very young age, I took an interest in beauty. I started seeing Guy Bourdin’s work when I was 10 or 11 years old. All those images woke me up to a certain sense of color, makeup, and artistry. I didn’t know anything about photography at that time, but I had a very strong attraction to those images. It was around that time that I knew that world was something I wanted to be a part of — I wanted to become either a photographer or a makeup artist.
I had so many beauty icons growing up. One of my favorites was Greta Garbo. I loved her in the movies Ninotchka, Flesh and the Devil, and Queen Christina. She was perfection back then — the most beautiful woman in the world. I was also very inspired by my mother and grandmother. I was obsessed with fashion and was very lucky to have an extremely beautiful, glamorous, and elegant mother on which I was able to practice makeup.
François Nars drew beauty inspiration from his grandmother (Photo: François Nars Archives)
When I started to think about working in the industry professionally, I had no connections, and the fashion world was closed to the elite. So my mother made appointments for herself with three top Parisian makeup artists and spoke highly about me. She was my first publicist! She was so beautiful and elegant that they must have figured that her son had taste. One offered me a job as an assistant.
François Nars’s mother, Claudette, was his first publicist. (Photo: François Nars Archives)
Marie Claire was the first magazine I ever worked for as a makeup artist. I was working with Olivier Echaudemaison on the shoot, and he had to run to another shoot and left me to do the makeup. I got along with everyone so well that the magazine started calling me directly to do the makeup. I started working on other shoots and then New York came along. Polly Mellon at American Vogue encouraged me to go. It was 1984 when I moved.
New York was incredibly inspiring. I was able to meet iconic photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Steven Meisel — real monuments of photography. I began working with the supermodels Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss. Linda was an amazing canvas to work on. She is, and was, so versatile and would really get into the persona of what we were going for.
Naomi Campbell was featured in NARS’s Fall 2004 campaign. (Photo: François Nars)
I was also working with Marc Jacobs. We actually have known each other since the very beginning of our careers, and I still love everything he creates. We constantly feed off of each other’s creativity and vision. Fashion and beauty really go hand in hand — I like to think of makeup as an accessory. So when I collaborate with a designer, I think about how the makeup will complement and enhance the fashions the way a fashion accessory would.
Though fashions may change, my philosophy for beauty has always been the same: There are no rules to makeup. Never stop experimenting and playing.
When I first launched NARS in 1994, I was young and free. I didn’t have anything set in my mind. I was frustrated with not being able to find the best products or the best colors and I thought it would be fun to create a makeup line. It wasn’t planned.
We didn’t have the budget to hire somebody so I thought, “Give me a camera, I’ll try it.” It wasn’t easy and took a lot of work and concentration, but I was used to working with such talented photographers. And many times Meisel would invite me to look in the camera and that helped a lot. Photography is basically the same gesture as doing makeup: Making somebody look beautiful, which is definitely a gesture of love in a way.
NARS’s Spring 2009 Campaign featured Guinevere Van Seenus. (Photo: François Nars)
Creating colors is one of my favorite parts of doing the line, but it’s also quite difficult as I’m very, very picky with colors. I am a perfectionist. It takes a lot of time to get a color exactly right. There is always a lot of back and forth with the chemist to be sure that I’m very happy with the colors. Another favorite is naming the products. I keep a little Hermes book with me at all times that I jot down potential names in. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and write down a name for a lipstick or an eyeshadow.
For the future of the brand, I hope the image of the brand remains; I hope we continue to grow while staying true to our roots. But I never think too much about the future. I work a few months in advance because I have to, but for the most part I take it day by day. I celebrate the past but live in the moment.
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