Louis Vuitton 'La Beauté' 2025 Ad Campaign

Review of Louis Vuitton ‘La Beauté’ 2025 Ad Campaign by Photographer Steven Meisel with models Hoyeon, Ida Heiner, Chu Wong and Awar Odhiang

Louis Vuitton has never shied away from grand gestures, and its new “La Beauté” campaign — the first beauty line under Dame Pat McGrath’s creative direction — makes one of its boldest yet. Positioned as “beauty in motion” and an ode to self-discovery, the campaign introduces the brand’s debut icons: LV Rouge lipsticks, LV Baume sheer balms, and LV Ombres eyeshadow palettes. Models Hoyeon, Ida Heiner, Chu Wong, and Awar Odhiang take the spotlight, their faces painted in commanding hues of crimson, cocoa, and cobalt.

Visually, the imagery is striking. Steven Meisel’s portraits, shot in sharp close-up against surreal desert backdrops, highlight pigments as sculptural statements: Hoyeon in burnished Monogram Rouge, Awar awash in electrifying blues, others framed in understated neutrals or velvet reds. The product design itself reinforces Vuitton’s language of luxury: refillable, gold-toned compacts engraved with the Monogram Flower, lipsticks as weighty keepsakes more akin to jewelry than beauty products.

The campaign video carries a more intimate rhythm, mixing extreme close-ups of skin and pigment with a voiceover about freedom, self-expression, and the journey of becoming. Pat McGrath herself appears, brush in hand, reminding us that beauty here is both crafted and emotional — “not what you see, it’s what you feel.” The narrative is polished, poetic, and unmistakably Vuitton: heritage reinterpreted through the glamour of red lipstick and the daring of a cobalt eye.

And yet, beneath this sleek execution lies an unanswered question. At $160 for a lipstick and $250 for an eyeshadow palette, Vuitton is positioning itself at a tier far above Dior, Chanel, or Guerlain. But the campaign stops short of articulating why. What elevates these products beyond the surface of branding? Is it ingredient innovation, longevity, or performance? Or is it simply the Vuitton name embossed in gold? The visuals are lush, the message empowering — but the justification for the price point remains implied rather than explained.

Still, the strategy is clear: Vuitton isn’t just entering beauty, it’s reframing it as part of the House’s world-building, extending the Monogram beyond trunks and handbags into pigments and compacts. Whether the market embraces beauty at this level of exclusivity remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: “La Beauté” signals Vuitton’s intent not to compete with beauty brands, but to redefine luxury beauty altogether — not as a purchase, but as a statement.