Dior Beauty, Illustrated

Before celebrities fronted everything from handbags to perfumes, expertly crafted hand-drawn images pushed product. And there was perhaps no one as good as René Gruau when it came to meshing art and commerce. The renowned illustrator got his big break working for the fashion bureau of the French newspaper Le Figaroin the 1930s, where he met another star on the rise: Christian Dior. The two men forged a long friendship that saw Gruau sketching some of the prolific couturier’s greatest creations, including his famous 1947 New Look collection that featured his legendary “bar suit.” Now, that image—the cinched-waist jacket, the full skirt, the regal posture—has been put perhaps where it’s always belonged: in a makeup palette. Dior’s new limited-editionTailleur Bar eye shadow compact features the very same iconic silhouette with a pink background dotted by nude, black, and “Dior gray” tones as well. The palette itself is a piece of art, which makes choosing whether or not to actually put brush to pigment a relatively heart-wrenching decision. But know this: Soft, defined lids will be your reward should you in fact go for it.