My Métier d’Excellence ?
I’m a Color Technician at LVMH Fragrance Brands. My métier consists in giving color to our different makeup products once the formulation has been approved. I work from a color brief provided by the Creative Director, which could be photos, objects or even flowers they’ve brought back from their travels, and then I have to reproduce the color. I work with pigments that are shared by all LVMH Group Perfumes & Cosmetics Houses.
My background ?
I joined Parfums Givenchy in 1978, when I was 17, and the unit where I was working became part of LVMH Fragrance Brands. I worked in various departments, including packaging quality and lab controls before entering the world of colors 20 years ago. I learned from others who shared their know-how with me, since there was no specialized school before I became part of the Maison, and I acquired the successive skills I practiced directly on the job, thanks to more experienced colleagues.
The most important things you need for this métier ?
Well to start with you have to love colors! This is a truly magical world and you have to be receptive to it. You also need to see all the nuances in colors because the work requires tremendous precision – some of the shades can look very similar to one another. Exacting professionalism is equally essential because you can’t simply do as you please, there are rules and standards that must be respected, and you need to learn how to balance them in order to create our colors.
An anecdote ?
A few years ago, our Creative Director Nicolas Degennes invited a colorist colleague and me to a restaurant off the Champs-Élysées. Beyond the amazing meal, the goal was to look at all the colors at the establishment and memorize them to try and replicate them in future shades of makeup. Not just the décor and the furniture, but also the dishes served in the plates, everything was considered a potential source of inspiration. At the end of the lunch they brought us an amazing bouquet of roses, a really flamboyant red, the biggest and most beautiful bouquet I’d ever seen. Monsieur Degennes wanted to show us that we could find inspiration for colors in everything. He even took us to Disneyland!