The last time I saw Paris must have been around the same last time many others saw places other than their own, for it was in February 2020, a month before the Philippines and other countries went on a lockdown.
We arrived after sundown in a wintry chill that was so kind, refreshing even. We were there to attend the launch of the Hermès lipstick line—a first for the world’s foremost luxury brand, quite understandably a watershed event attended by media from the world over. With Mario Katigbak, general manager of the firm behind Hermès in the Philippines, perfume ambassador Denise San Jose, and Philippine Star’s Therese Garceau, we lost no time in walking down Champs Élysées that night, checking out Galerie Lafayette and its cool décor for Valentine’s. At the end of this elegantly lit boulevard loomed the Eiffel Tower, the proud beacon of a Paris night.
Paris, February 2020, before the lockdown (Video submitted to TheDiarist.ph by Thelma San Juan. Video editor: Ej Bonagua)
Little did we know that that visit would be our last to Paris in an unforeseeable span of time, for even as the coronavirus was already in the news then, a world in denial never could have guessed that life as we knew it would never be the same in the following year or so—and that Champs Élysées, like many of the world’s iconic boulevards, would be deserted, an emptiness so stark it could send chills down your spine, although Paris is coming back to life now as we speak.
Today, seeing the 2021 Rouge Hermès Spring Summer 2021 Limited Edition
lipstick line triggers our memory of that most memorable launch in 2020. It’s like looking back on a happy place, in the literal and figurative sense, where people were out on a stroll, streaming in and out of shops, settled down at cafés or restaurants. People facing people, people connecting to people—the big no-no of the pandemic that was to come.
It was people facing people, people connecting to people—the big no-no of the pandemic that was to come.
I remember the 2020 launch of the Hermès lipstick as very vibrant, as vibrant and visually stimulating as the Hermès orange. Held in a multi-story aged structure in the heart of the city, the event was high creative energy with the continuous flow of guests from one floor to another, each floor a venue of different activities. The ground level hall, bathed in a pinkish orange light, displayed the exhibit showcase of the lipstick line and the iconic bags of Hermès. In the upper levels were a modern dance performance—a moving choreography around the iconic color—and more glass displays of the lipstick in a backdrop of colors, a makeup studio where guests could try on the shades, and the non-stop screening of the video campaign.
The 2021 Rouge Hermès Spring Summer 2021 Limited Edition consists of Beige Ebloui, Rose Oasis, Corail Aqua. It’s a new collection of three limited-edition lipsticks, actually three beauty objects lacquered for this one season in vibrant, sunny colors. “They evoke fleeting idylls, polychrome visions along a white-hot road; canyon colors, a blissful moment of escape, energy in abstract form. Fragments of molten yellow, pink, turquoise and coral,” said the brand statement.
The lipstick colors are designed to evoke images of a world that hasn’t lost its colors, even in this pandemic: “A dream streaked with light. The sparkling vibrancy of a road trip punctuated by mirages. Oases, cacti, and dunes as far as the eye can see. With a counterpoint of mineral notes borrowed from wide open spaces where beige, sand and ochre stretch out across the horizon, when the gaze becomes one with the vastness of the day. When the sky traces lines of surreal chromatic vibrations.
“With their shimmering satin finish, the three lipsticks release color. These three radiant shades enhance the luminosity of the lips like reflections on water, like tremblings mirrored in the golden light of day.
“BEIGE EBLOUI: the vibration of sand richly warmed by the sun…. ROSE OASIS: neither quite fuchsia nor quite magenta, an exalted pink, part bougainvillea, part succulent plant. CORAIL AQUA: a divine dip in a turquoise pool, the shimmering glow of a bright and intense vermilion.”
The objects in the spring-summer 2021 Rouge Hermès Limited Edition collection are refillable.
The spring-summer 2021 Rouge Hermès Limited Edition collection is now available in select Hermès retail outlets around the world. In the Philippines, it is exclusively available at Rustan’s Makati.
2020 Hermès lipstick launch (Video submitted to TheDiarist.ph by Thelma San Juan. Video editor: Ej Bonagua)
