If you&rsquo;re a Winona in a world of Gwyneths &ndash; you must be questioning today&rsquo;s state of beauty. Should makeup make you look perfect? For Inge Grognard &ndash; the answer is no. If you take a closer look at her work, spanning collaborations from Martin Margiela to Demna Gvasalia, you&rsquo;ll realize there&rsquo;s always been a backdoor to fashion and beauty&rsquo;s front row where imperfection is permitted, subverted, and celebrated.&nbsp;

There&rsquo;s a school of beauty that makes lines disappear, that views darks spots as blind spots of self-care, that devalues long nights of hard work because of the eye bags earned right after. The truth is, no matter how one resists life&rsquo;s pressures and strains, time and gravity will extract their toll no matter what. Makeup artist Inge Grognard understands this by instinct and has learned to challenge the idea of perfection by creating makeup looks that wear flaws well. Hers is a brand of beauty that&rsquo;s not for everyone, and that&rsquo;s the whole point. But it&rsquo;s not a member&rsquo;s only club either &ndash; rather, it&rsquo;s an open secret for individuals who don&rsquo;t want to look like another airbrushed face with a long list of areas to hide. Sometimes getting a glow-up is all about daring to reveal a hint of darkness.&nbsp;
In this interview with L&rsquo;Officiel, the Business of Fashion 500 industry veteran expounds on her idea of beauty by talking about her career &ndash;&nbsp; from her beginnings at the Antwerp&rsquo;s Royal Academy of Fine Arts to her game-changing collaboration with Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga&rsquo;s Spring/Summer 2022 collection.

Congratulations on the Balenciaga show. How was Paris Fashion Week? It felt like normal unlike the seasons before because [at that time], there were more videos and there&rsquo;s nobody on the streets who were allowed in the restaurants. But now it felt like it&rsquo;s going back to what it was before. People were on the streets. What felt really nice for me was to see dressed-up people again. You could go to restaurants. You could sit outside. You could have a drink together with people you didn't see for a long time. It was really nice. I really enjoyed it.
&nbsp; That&rsquo;s great. We also enjoyed watching it. I love The Simpsons part of the show. It's such a clever movement in a way that a lot of people were not aware of what was happening. There was the surprise of The Simpsons made especially for Balenciaga within the head roll. You had all the people working in the team. We all recognize them. What Demna did was mix that with all the cliches that you have in fashion and art. Nowadays, you can give another big show, but I don't think it was the moment for that&hellip;I think what Demna brought back was a little bit of humor, which was really missing after a catastrophic year with the pandemic. There was a smile on people's faces again.
&nbsp;

Balenciaga x The Simpsons

Was that something you and the team already know? Let&rsquo;s say we knew all about the red carpet, but we didn&rsquo;t know that the people were mixed with the models. There was no rehearsal before so we just saw it &ndash; then the first model went out. We could see the screen. I realized, okay, this is going to happen. It was a very nice surprise. &nbsp; Tell me about the process that went into the beauty looks in the Balenciaga show. It's always a little bit the same. You're there for a couple of days, and we do look by look. People are coming in. They have a mood board. Because it's the red carpet, you have the eyeliner going on. There were different eyes that were a little bit more grungy. Sometimes it's a bit more bare. Sometimes it&rsquo;s a little bit more sharp. But it's not going to be that really cliche thing with all over-the-face makeup and lips on top and the eyebrows or whatever because this doesn&rsquo;t really correlate or go together with what Demna stands for in beauty. We find a good way to give them an edgy thing going on in the face. Skin was very important. They had to feel really well&hellip;what is very important is they have to feel comfortable with the look they're wearing and with the face they have. &nbsp; Was it more of your idea or was it collaborative all throughout? The thing is when you work with the designers &ndash; the really good ones &ndash; they know which direction they want to go. You have to fit in, and what I do in that whole thing is doing it my way. I have a stamp like when I do a face, I will never almost never do any lips and eyes and blush and eyebrows and false lashes. I will never do that. When there is makeup, it's always a little bit edgy. It's a little bit not. It's underground, not underground. It can be very chic, but still, there&rsquo;s something raw in it. That's the part that I play in the whole game. &nbsp;

Yes. I like that it's not trendy. Do you get pressured with the current trends especially because of Instagram? I'm totally not into it. I don't know any bloggers, I don't know any influencers. I always follow my gut. Of course, it's nice to have likes and followers or whatever, but I never did something to have more followers. It's because I started in a period when there was no internet. We have to fall down to stand up again and deal with the critics from some journalists. Even when I was really getting bigger, it's like people were not talking about the beauty, they were talking about the clothes &ndash; that really essential thing &ndash; but not the thing around it. There were no journalists talking about beauty. We could do what we wanted to do or what we felt we had to do. Nowadays, I know the influence of social media is enormous, but I try to put it beside me and stay loyal to myself and the people I'm working with. When marketing is pushing me to a certain kind of situation or things that I have to do that I don't feel &ndash; &nbsp;I just step out.

What is beautiful is to see the traces that were left, wearing things and seeing traces also in some faces...

Though you&rsquo;ve stayed true to your roots, your work transcends not just the cultural moments from your period. In fact, you&rsquo;re associated with new designers and brands like Eckhaus Latta, Blumarine, and Balenciaga that are not only known for their contemporariness but also for their ability to stay ahead of curve. I started with the Antwerp Six on top of Martin Margiela whom I&rsquo;ve worked with for 20 years. I still work with Walter Van Beirendonck. I worked with most of them, but Martin Margiela quit in 2008. I also did Raf for two seasons or three seasons. I did Veronique Branquinho and A.F. Vandevorst. &nbsp; I also worked with a new generation. Now I work with Demna. I know him from the academy. It's a long time ago, so I met them again for the first time, and he was doing a shoot for Vetements. I really love him. He's very emotional. He's very honest. He&rsquo;s very loyal. I really can find myself in the clothes he&rsquo;s designing. For me, it was also like, finally there&rsquo;s a designer again I want to buy stuff from. &nbsp;

Absolutely. It's not just something pretty. You can ask questions on why he's doing it &ndash; &nbsp;like why that kind of aesthetics which for some people can be pretty strange. It's interesting&hellip;the reshaping like he's really playing with the kind of cuts and everything. He's a real fashion designer with good brains. &nbsp; How would you describe Balenciaga beauty? For Balenciaga couture, we did it a little bit more refined, you know what I mean? There&rsquo;s a very thin sharp eyeliner going together with the hats. It's all in little details&hellip;like you can make it really classic or retro and apply eyeliner, or you know, like eye shadow, lips, and blush. But that's the thing we don't do. There are elements that you already know, but then because everything else is ripped off, it becomes something else. It becomes a little bit darker, a little bit more underground, a little bit more edgy. For me, the Balenciaga beauty is edgy. It asks a lot of questions. Also the faces Demna is using are not about obvious beauty. Sometimes there are classic beauties in it, but still, the way we go on with them, we give them less than they normally have, but they have to feel beautiful. &nbsp;

Can you tell me more about your friendship and collaborative relationship with Martin Margiela? I met Martin when I was 14, and we were all very interested in clothes and makeup. That's the way it started. And then Martin moved to Antwerp. I moved to Antwerp too. He was studying at the academy. I was studying makeup and you know, beauty things like massage and everything, but I didn't like that. I wanted to do the part of makeup. And that's the way it started. Then in the academy, I met the Antwerp Six. &nbsp; What's your beauty inspiration? Is it more about everyday makeup, or is it all about artistry and emotion? It's more about emotion with me, how I feel that moment when I do something totally free, what happened in my life. It's stimulating. I'm never influenced by things on the street &ndash; more by movies and books and some sentences in it. It's more about everything coming outside of my body. I have a big archive. I bought so many books that even the room has become too small. I also have a book that I made myself where I pulled out pictures from artists and whatever that I was interested in around the 70s and the 80s. I still have that book. It has articles like the beginning of i-D and the beginning of all those interesting English magazines...Of course, I have my stamp; I have added things that I like and things that I would never do even when they pay me for it.

What&rsquo;s your advice to people who want to achieve the look that you do on their own? [Choosing] products would be difficult because I'm using everything mixed together. It's like, first of all, the best thing is always you have to treat your face really well. So you need to hydrate. You need to see that your skin is really in good condition. First of all, that's the biggest thing because I don't use a lot of foundation. I never do that. It's just a little bit of retouching for the redness. Everything with me is very delicate. I'm not using a lot of stuff. When you&rsquo;re just doing a normal natural face, you can do it with a little box of stuff.

For my last question, what do you find beautiful? That's the hardest question to answer, but beauty for me is kind of the imperfection in perfection. There&rsquo;s always a little corner missing, and that's the thing that's interesting. &nbsp; It's not full-on makeup but it's also not no-makeup makeup. No. You can make it totally perfect that you look like a doll. A lot of people love that, but when I think about myself &ndash; no, I would never do it like that. I like the rawness in clothes, even when you have a jacket that has to be made perfect but the way you wear it, there can be things happening like a hole from a cigarette. I think Demna said and also Martin said &ndash; what is beautiful is to see the traces that were left, wearing things and seeing traces also in some faces&hellip;I think that it's very emotional also. That's the thing. You need the right balance. Sometimes I see that with new assistants. When I try to explain what I want, they interpret it in a sense that&rsquo;s too much. That can be makeup, but I don't want to see it. You know what I mean? Also in makeup, you need to have a light hand. When your hand is too heavy, you put too much. That&rsquo;s not my cup of tea. &nbsp;

Beauty for me is kind of the imperfection in perfection. There&rsquo;s always a little corner missing, and that's the thing that's interesting.

Makeup Artist Inge Grognard on the Imperfect Allure of the Balenciaga Beauty

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