Chanel Beauty is taking a huge step in fostering beauty talents. They've announced the launch of Comètes Collective, which Chanel has described as 'a group of emerging talents shaping the future of beauty'. Ammy Dremmeh, Cécile Paravina and Valentina Li are the first artists to join the collective, where Chanel Makeup Creation studio hopes to 'accelerate its creative momentum, leveraging the power of diversity by empowering multiple points of view'.
Each member of this collective have been chosen for their vibrant and singular vision of beauty, as well as values and creativity which resonate with the House.
Ammy Drammeh
With Spanish and Gambian parentage, Drammeh settled in London and explored her artistry in 2010 and made British Fashion Council's 'New Wave Creatives' list, which celebrates the most innovative and inspiring young talents in the year 2018 and 2019.
Related article: Shop Kane Lim’s Favourite Fenty Products As Seen On ‘Bling Empire’
Drammeh draws upon her rich cultural inheritance for inspiration and credits her many mentors. "I assisted incredibly talented makeup artists, and I learned valuable lessons from all of them. Being able to work with such diverse talent has shaped the way I work today. Their very unique approaches to the craft have helped me find my own."
Related article: The Best Spring 2023 Makeup Trends You’ll Want To Try Now
Her vision of makeup is 'effortless with a twist… [her] style of makeup is a bit like that. It feels uncomplicated and free, but when you look closer, you can see the pauses, the accents, and the detail.' These subtleties align with those the CHANEL Makeup Creation Studio explores through its uniquely modern yet grounded vision of beauty.
Drammeh’s talent for colour, mastery of texture, and unparalleled expertise when it comes to complexion rendered her an unmissable artistic collaborator in the eyes of the House. By playing with materials and colour, she is able to assert herself as a woman—to get to know herself and all her nuances—explains Drammeh. Her best beauty advice: ‘Don’t be afraid. Don’t limit yourself based on what trends and others think is right. Follow your instincts, play, and have fun!’
Cécile Paravina
A graduate of design from the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Parisian Cécile Paravina infuses her creations with sophistication and refinement.
Following in the iconoclastic footsteps of her mentor Serge Lutens, Paravina is a true artist who, despite her young age, demonstrates a generous vision of beauty marked by intergenerational transmission. 'My intention is always to give and to inspire, she explains.'
Paravina quickly made a name for herself with her unapologetic creativity. She will freely revisit the shape of the eye, making an eyebrow disappear, or reinterpret the beauty of a smile in a totally unique and unexpected way. Her curious exploration of volume, her purity of a line, the originality of her forms—Paravina’s work is immediately distinguished by the originality of her gaze and her innovative technical approach.
For Paravina, ‘the future lies in creativity applied to innovation’. Her presence at the heart of the COMETES COLLECTIVE underscores the conviction espoused by the CHANEL Makeup Creation Studio that beauty is a language in perpetual evolution, at the service of an expression of beauty that belongs not just to a privileged few, but to many.
Related article: The Best New Sunscreens Of 2022 To Protect Your Complexion
Valentina Li
Fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and French, Li studied makeup in both Beijing and Paris, and is best known for her whimsical and fabulously colourful works.
The experimental, non-conforming futurist is nonetheless deeply inspired by the talent and stories of her elders, mentors, and makeup masters. Li describes her take on makeup as a ‘long journey that flirts between [her] dreams, notebooks, blank canvases waiting to be painted, and finally, the transparency of skin’. She specifies that her creative process is guided by an uncompromising imperative: ‘To make what is old new again’.
This abundance of ideas coupled with a rich inner world full of colour and texture empowered Li to master the crafts of makeup and body art. A diligent worker, Li enjoys losing herself in search of inspiration, in pursuit of that one defining detail that will trigger an avalanche of nuance. The artist of a perennial blue period is also deeply connected to nature, transporting imagery from both the invisible and visible spaces of the sea into the conception of her collections—much like Gabrielle Chanel’s early references to the coast of Deauville.
These three artists will be working to expand Chanel's palette of colours and shades, reinventing the House's creative language in their own way. Chanel will reveal the first Comètes Collective collections in January 2024.