Dame Pat McGrath: From Northampton to the World of Beauty

For Maison Margiela’s 2024 Artisanal show, Pat McGrath made human skin resemble glazed porcelain. Eyebrows became thin, drawn arches; colour gathered in the centre of the cheeks; red or black lips shone beneath clear gloss. A reflective coating completed the faces. Working with creative director John Galliano’s vision of Paris beside the Seine, she helped create characters whose make-up was as deliberately constructed as their clothes. ¹

Learning colour in Northampton

McGrath grew up in Northampton with her mother, Jean, a Jamaican immigrant who raised her as a single parent. Fashion and beauty were shared interests, pursued through magazines, fabrics and trips to the shops. In an interview with Allure, McGrath described her working-class background and the central place her mother occupied in her creative education. Long before fashion houses sought her advice, she was looking closely at colour with someone who treated getting dressed and applying make-up as absorbing daily activities. ²

Suitable cosmetics for Black skin were difficult to find. Jean mixed colours herself and encouraged her daughter to study the shades used in photographs. McGrath’s interests widened to the clothes and make-up associated with the Blitz Kids, Boy George and Marilyn. She completed an art foundation course at Northampton College, but the fashion world she wanted to enter also existed beyond the classroom: in magazines, on London’s King’s Road and in the clubs where young people tried out elaborate looks. ³

She had another ambition too. McGrath later told British Vogue that she had wanted to sing opera and had travelled to London for vocal training, imagining a future inspired by Maria Callas. Her coach encouraged her to enjoy being young. In her recollection, visits to galleries and clubs followed; occasionally, a hurried purchase of a Tate postcard helped maintain the account of an educational day out that she gave her mother. ⁴

From music to the magazine studio

The stylist Kim Bowen helped turn her interest into work. After meeting McGrath, Bowen invited her to watch shoots for The Face and i-D. McGrath abandoned plans for a fashion degree as opportunities in make-up opened up. Her early work brought her into contact with Edward Enninful, then developing his own career at i-D. Their connection became a lasting creative partnership, formed within British magazines that made space for distinctive styling, new photographers and unconventional ideas about beauty. ³

Music provided an early international opportunity. McGrath recalled meeting Caron Wheeler, the Soul II Soul singer, through the London scene. Wheeler invited her to do make-up on a tour of Japan. ⁵

In 1993, McGrath worked on a French Glamour cover featuring Amber Valletta, photographed by Craig McDean. She identified it as her first mainstream magazine cover. Valletta subsequently recommended her to Steven Meisel, and in 1996 McGrath worked with him on a couture story in New York. Meisel became one of her regular collaborators. ⁵

The backstage kit and the laboratory

Her work soon extended into developing cosmetics for established companies. She helped create Giorgio Armani’s make-up collection in 1999. In 2004 she became global creative design director for Procter & Gamble’s CoverGirl and Max Factor brands, and she worked on Dolce & Gabbana’s make-up line, introduced in 2009. Each demanded a different approach. In a 2009 interview with W, she contrasted the wearable neutral colours developed for Armani with the stronger colour associated with Dolce & Gabbana. ⁶

The technical questions could be surprisingly specific. Discussing the Dolce & Gabbana range, McGrath explained how metallic pigments could lose their brightness when blended, making a convincing gold difficult to achieve. Her decisions also involved packaging, scent and even the taste of a lipstick. Runway commissions allowed different experiments: blue faces for John Galliano’s spring 2003 show, or the pale eye areas and long lashes of deer-like faces for Viktor & Rolf’s autumn 2004 collection. ⁶

McGrath’s methods combined close handwork with a large supply of tools. Asked by British Vogue in 2012 what she carried backstage, she listed brushes, eyelash curlers, tweezers, cotton buds and tissues, adding that certain looks required scissors and glue. She also described applying liquid foundation with her fingers, using the warmth of her hands to help it spread. Her reputation for working with her hands did not mean dispensing with brushes: she stressed that she brought her full selection to a show. ⁷

Gold pigment and a company of her own

Pat McGrath Labs began reaching customers in 2015 with Gold 001, a metallic pigment. The striking gold lips at Prada’s spring/summer 2016 show had offered a preview that September. On 30 September, McGrath staged a public demonstration in Paris with Instagram, turning makeovers into photographs that could circulate immediately. The first release went on sale on 29 October. Only 1,000 units were offered, making a single experimental product the opening statement of a business carrying her own name. ⁸

The kit contained the pigment, mixing liquid, a spatula and a container, packed among sequins. It invited buyers to work with colour rather than simply take a finished lipstick from a case. McGrath followed the launch through social media, sharing other people’s interpretations of the gold look. For an artist whose finished work had often appeared in a magazine or on a runway, the responses placed individual customers’ experiments alongside professional fashion images. ⁸

A broader core collection followed in autumn 2017, sold through the company’s website and selected Sephora stores in North America. In July 2018, the investment firm Eurazeo announced a $60 million minority investment, joining existing investor One Luxury Group. Eurazeo described plans to expand distribution in the United States and internationally. The announcement records a particular stage in the company’s growth, when outside investment supported the move from limited releases towards a larger cosmetics operation with sustained retail ambitions. ⁹

Covers, counters and a wider palette

McGrath continued working on editorial projects while building the business. She became British Vogue’s beauty editor-at-large in 2017, when Enninful took charge of the magazine, and created the make-up for his debut cover featuring Adwoa Aboah. The appointment reunited colleagues whose work together stretched back to i-D. It also put her experience at the centre of the magazine’s new beauty coverage, alongside her continuing work with photographers and designers. ^{4, 10}

Writing about her first beauty story in the new Vogue, McGrath named the people who made it with her. She had discovered photographer Desiree Mattsson and nail artist Sarah Nguyen through Instagram; hair stylist Eugene Souleiman was a longstanding collaborator. One look involved arranging tiny metal stars around the eyes, a process that took three hours. Other details included gold wire lashes and lips covered in three sizes of crystals. ¹⁰

Her foundation range drew on a different kind of observation. At the 2019 launch of Skin Fetish: Sublime Perfection, McGrath told Tatler that she had studied models’ arms, necks and bodies backstage when choosing colours. The foundation came in 36 shades, taking account of warm and cool tones, and formed part of a system with primer and setting powder. The range was developed over seven years and went on sale in July through her website and selected Selfridges stores. ¹¹

In 2019, the brand acquired a substantial physical presence in Britain through Selfridges. Its first British retail space was accompanied by a takeover of 24 shop windows and a Corner Shop installation, A Technical Odyssey Directed by Pat McGrath. The scale brought her visual language out of the compact and into the design of a London department store. ⁵

Recognition for beauty and design

The Metropolitan Museum of Art had already collaborated with her company in 2018, through its shop, for the exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Products included a specially presented eyeshadow palette and lip gloss, with packaging incorporating art from the museum’s collection. McGrath also created displays for the exhibition shop in the medieval galleries. ¹²

The Council of Fashion Designers of America gave her its Founder’s Award, named in honour of Eleanor Lambert, in 2017. In the 2021 New Year Honours she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The government’s citation recognised her international influence in make-up and her championing of cultural diversity in beauty. The honours acknowledged both the detailed creative work undertaken behind the scenes and the wider industry presence she had built. ^{13, 14}

In 2024 she received the London Design Medal. Speaking to the London Design Festival, she placed make-up firmly within design, describing a career built around colour, materials and experimentation. She also returned to her mother’s early lessons and to London as the place where her working life had begun. ¹⁵

From glass skin to Louis Vuitton

The porcelain faces at Maison Margiela became the starting point for another product. In January 2025, Pat McGrath Labs launched Skin Fetish: Glass 001 Artistry Mask, a peel-off formula intended to recreate the reflective finish. The company described McGrath’s interest in the tutorials through which people had attempted the look themselves. As with Gold 001, a technique associated with a particular show developed into something customers could experiment with outside a professional backstage setting. ¹⁶

A separate appointment took her into a new venture at Louis Vuitton in 2025: creative director of cosmetics for La Beauté Louis Vuitton. When the group announced the project in March, it described a working relationship with McGrath extending over more than twenty years. Her knowledge of runway make-up would now feed into the fashion house’s own cosmetics collection. This work sat alongside her namesake brand, continuing the collaborations with other businesses that had been part of her career since the Armani years. ^{17, 18}

The launch collection included 55 lipstick shades, ten tinted balms and eight eyeshadow quartets. The number 55 referred to the Roman numerals LV. McGrath’s colour work formed part of a wider design effort: Konstantin Grcic developed the black-and-gold packaging, with magnetic cases and details drawn from the house’s motifs. Describing the project to Elle in August 2025, she discussed the creative freedom it offered and her longstanding relationship with Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections. ¹⁹

A changing business and new collaborations

The company carrying her name faced serious financial difficulties in 2026. Pat McGrath Cosmetics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in January. In April, a court-approved restructuring plan provided for $65 million in financing and support from GDA Luma, which obtained controlling equity and control of the brand. Brown Rudnick, the law firm representing GDA Luma, reported the agreement in June. ²⁰

The revised arrangements also changed the founder’s financial relationship with the business. Cosmetics Business reported that the plan transferred her existing equity and removed provisions for her to retain a stake. The April announcement described McGrath continuing as chief creative officer, expressing her intention to keep developing the brand’s work; Brown Rudnick’s subsequent account specified that the creative role would continue temporarily. ^{20, 21}

Her wider creative work continued. By October 2026, a collaboration with Pandora had brought her ideas into jewellery: lip-shaped rings and charms, an eye motif, and pieces taking the form of a lipstick tube. Faces and the tools used to colour them became designs that could be worn on the hand, wrist or neck. The collaboration extended a career that had repeatedly moved between make-up, fashion imagery and objects, while keeping colour and the close study of the face at its centre. ²²

Sources

1. Pat McGrath Labs: Maison Margiela Artisanal Collection 2024.

2. Allure: The Genius of Pat McGrath — interview by Jenny Bailly (2021).

3. British Vogue: Pat McGrath biography (2012).

4. British Vogue: Pat McGrath reflects on her career — interview with Jessica Diner.

5. i-D: An interview with Pat McGrath — by Shannon Peter (2019).

6. W: The Italian Job — Pat McGrath interview by Jane Larkworthy (2009).

7. British Vogue: McGrath Says — beauty tips and tools interview (2012).

8. British Vogue: Pat McGrath Gold 001 and the power of Instagram (2015).

9. Eurazeo: Investment in Pat McGrath Labs (16 July 2018).

10. British Vogue: Pat McGrath — Beauty Is Everything (2017).

11. Tatler: Preview Pat McGrath’s latest skin-perfecting products (2019).

12. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Pat McGrath Labs collaboration (2018).

13. Council of Fashion Designers of America: The 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards winners.

14. UK Government: New Year Honours 2021 — high awards.

15. London Design Festival: In conversation with Pat McGrath DBE (2024).

16. Pat McGrath Labs: Skin Fetish — Glass 001 Artistry Mask (2025).

17. LVMH: La Beauté Louis Vuitton announcement (25 March 2025).

18. Louis Vuitton: Pat McGrath — cosmetics creative director.

19. Elle: Pat McGrath on crafting Louis Vuitton’s new makeup line (2025).

20. Brown Rudnick: Plan confirmation in the Pat McGrath Cosmetics bankruptcy case (17 June 2026).

21. Cosmetics Business: Pat McGrath Labs bankruptcy exit plan approved (21 April 2026).

22. Pandora: Pandora x Pat McGrath collection (accessed October 2026).

Image credit

Pat McGrath photographed in February 2011. Photograph: Nick Gray; crop and lighting/colour adjustment by Wracking, via Wikimedia Commons. Image source; CC BY-SA 2.0.