Fashion photographer Sarah Moon launches Nars beauty collection

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If successful branding is all about story telling, then a new collection from make-up brand NARS should be a sell-out. It brings the work one of fashion’s most distinctive but enigmatic photography talents, Sarah Moon, to a new audience. Moon once worked with Guy Bourdin, and her style is as distinctive, if less well known than her legendary mentor.

Together with the brand’s founder, make-up artist and photographer, François Nars, Moon conceived and art-directed the range; from the colours to the packaging to the theme for the campaign; inspired by imagery from the 1927 film, Metropolis and the idea of transparency.

For those not familiar with Moon, she came to prominence in the 1980’s and 90’s. Her work is painterly and otherworldly, like forgotten daguerreotypes unearthed from the 19th century. Nars himself says, “she works in a very specific world; very intimate, full of softness and beauty – like a dream world.”

Though the two had never met in person, they had mutual friends and Moon was aware that Nars was a fan, as Patti Wilson, (who also styled the campaign) told her, and eventually brought the pair together. Speaking of Moon as one of his photographic heroes Nars said; “I was obsessed with [her] work. I was looking at magazines constantly when I was younger, trying to figure out how the makeup and lighting was used.”

The products themselves cover everything needed to create a theatrically romantic look – matte eyeliner pencils, eye and cheek palettes in dusky pinks and reds, fluttery false lashes and matte lipsticks in various deep tones.

Moon described the process of product development; “we talked about the idea of a kind of mist around the eyes and worked from there. Nothing too obvious, nothing too strident. Just enhancing the woman’s natural features.” Above all, she said “We wanted to tell a story of an authentic woman. Any makeup she is wearing is never a mask. We really collaborated to find this woman that was delicate, yet strong and always very modern.”