Artist Ariana Papademetropoulos, Gucci’s Newest Face, Is a Beauty Muse Worth Following
“I think now is a good time to tell you that I used to work as a fairy,” says Ariana Papademetropoulos, the 28-year-old Los Angeles–based artist and newly minted face of Gucci’s Mémoire d’Une Odeur, midway through a recent phone call. From anyone else, such a statement might come as something of a shock, but for the half-Argentine, half-Greek beauty—who can be seen running around the medieval Montecalvello Castle alongside Harry Styles in the fragrance’s campaign film—it seems more than fitting. “My name was Opal Desdemona and I would blow bubbles, do face paint, and dress up however I wanted. I had glitter on my face for, like, four years straight.”
Though she still indulges in a well-placed smattering of shimmer—a sparkling streak for a roller-skating party in L.A.; lilac-rhinestone lids during New York Fashion Week—these days, Papademetropoulos, who has shown her dreamscape paintings, videos, and installations at Frieze, the Park Avenue Armory, and the Underground Museum, prefers an above-the-neck equation that’s more Old Hollywood than enchanted nymph. Think: a feline flick at eye level; a reddish mouth that pops against her porcelain complexion; and, of course, a spritz of the house’s Roman chamomile, sandalwood, and vanilla eau.
“I’m really fascinated by scent because we’re living in a world in which we base everything on vision,” she explains while taking a break from filming her latest work on the Greek island of Milos. “It instantly brings you back to a moment in time,” she adds, citing the musky, wet odor of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland (“I love that smell so much!” she insists) that inspired her love of caves; the lingering trace of her grandmother’s laundry detergent on passed-down clothes; and the heady aroma of a jasmine bush that stood outside her childhood home.
With an eye (and a nose) toward the past, however, she’s ultimately looking forward: There’s a solo show at Athens’ The Breeder next month, followed by a booth with Soft Opening in Miami during Art Basel, and an exhibition at the Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz next June. As she puts it: “Lots and lots of art shows . . . and hopefully lots of Gucci along the way too.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
