Makeup Is Meant to Make People Feel Beautiful, According to Tom Pecheux

In the hours leading up to CR Runway’s inaugural show—the brainchild of Carine Roitfeld and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, done in collaboration with LuisaViaRoma—the stadium that was erected atop the Piazzale Michelangelo sat empty, but backstage was humming with energy. There were rows upon rows of vanity mirrors, with each trimmed with lightbulbs. Each illuminated a model who sat before it. But at one station in particular, there was a crowd of super-famous faces—Lara Stone, Karolina Kurkova, Noemie Lenoir, Irina Shayk—who were waiting to get their makeup personally done at the hands of Tom Pecheux, legendary French makeup artist and global beauty director of YSL Beaute.

Pecheux has spent decades lending his discerning eye to luxury brands like Chanel, Prada, and Givenchy. He’s responsible for conceiving iconic looks for marquee runway shows and campaigns. But the one thing he prides himself on the most is making people look and feel their best.

“It’s my duty to not only make them look beautiful, but to make them feel beautiful—it’s a gift that I have and it’s a gift that I like to give to those who are sitting in my chair,” Pecheux says the day prior to the CR Runway show. “If there’s one thing I want to teach my assistants, it’s that we are here for these people.”

Pecheux hugging Joan Smalls

Perhaps it’s Pecheux’s gift that attracted the greatest, most renowned figures in the industry, including Patrick Demarchelier, Karl Lagerfeld, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, and Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Perhaps it’s why Roitfeld and Pecheux continue to remain the strongest of friends ever since they both came crashing onto the scene in the early ‘90s when they first teamed up with Mario Testino for Tom Ford’s Gucci. And perhaps it’s for all these reasons that Pecheux was really the only person for the job: to enhance everyone’s natural beauty.

Here, Pecheux shares how he met Roitfeld, why he loved the ‘90s, and the moment he vowed he’ll never use makeup to make people cry.

When you first heard about CR Runway, what was your initial thought?
“That Carine is getting more and more crazy [laughs].”

How did you and Carine meet?
“We met over 25 or 30 years ago, though it’s not long enough. We met through a common friend on a photo shoot with Stella Tennant, and we did all the incredible years of Gucci with Tom Ford and Mario Testino together. We were like a gang. I consider Carine my best girlfriend. A lot of people know her as the queen of fashion, I know her as a queen. She knows how to laugh at herself and that’s a very, very rare quality. But more than anything, Carine has been there for me through difficult moments, and nothing in the world can replace that. When a friend is there for the good times, but also for the bad moments, that’s special. She’s a definition of what a friend is. She’s my girl. She’s my fiancée.”

What did you love about the ‘90s?
“Everything. That’s when we all bloomed. That was bad taste and good taste; fashion then was all over the place. People called it bad taste: big shoulders, very high pants, baggy. If you look at fashion today, it’s just like that. It’s a mash-up of all different genres. But there’s freedom now that didn’t exist in the ‘90s, which is fascinating to see these days. Minorities, LBTQ+, and [marginalized groups of people] have more of a voice, more freedom to express themselves, but it’s still a fight. And while things may feel like a regression, we’re still moving forward.”

What about the makeup in the ‘90s?
“It was the same thing: In the ‘90s there were different kinds of makeup. There was less globalization back then. In France, we were stuck in the bourgeois; in England, it was grungy; the Americans were all about Old Hollywood glamour. Nothing was mixed back then, but that’s why Carine became because successful because she understands cultures and she has good taste. She had no borders. She’s a rebel, and she fights for what she believes in; she fights for the people she loves. Is she perfect? No, but her imperfections make her even better.”

Pecheux putting on the finishing touches on Lara Stone’s makeup

What was the makeup concept for the show?
“I want to put out the message that everybody is beautiful. It’s not simple or minimal, but it will look simple and minimal. It’s all about treating everyone in an individual way and find the places–the contouring, the foundation—that will make each person feel her best. Some people might need a stronger eyebrow, some people might need more mascara, some people are going to request a little more lip color, so we’re going to treat everybody in a very individual way. Carine said to make people look and feel beautiful. And that’s what I love to do.”

I love the concept of enhancing people’s natural beauty.
“Always. I have a memory from many years ago: A model arrived in tears, crying from a show. I thought something bad happened to her and I asked her what’s wrong. She said, ‘Look at me, they made me look so ugly. I feel so ugly.’ Since that day, I told her I would never do makeup that will make people look bad or make them cry. That’s not the makeup I want to do. I want to do makeup that will give people a big smile on their face.”