Francois Nars - History & background & the beginning of NARS

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/09/05/13/5732728.jpg

Francois Nars was born in Southern France in 1959 and was creative in his interests and hobbies from a young boy due to the influence of his mother Claudette Nars. He used to draw models and people he saw in Vogue magazine from the age of 10. To Nars fashion wasn't just about the garments but about the collaboration of designers, make-up artists, hair stylists and models to create the final look. 
After graduating from the Carita Institute as a make-up artist in Paris he entered the industry that during his childhood had been only for those in elite circles. He moved to New York in 1984 and worked for Harpers Bazaar, Vogue US and Vogue Italy. He became famous in the industry and worked for Marc Jacobs, Dolce and Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld and Alberta Ferretti. He also worked with some of the best most iconic photographers such as Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton.
Francois Nars aim became to enhance beauty with make-up but not mask. His style varied between natural, classic and glamorous but always fresh and modern.

Feeling limited by the products available to him, Nars launched NARS cosmetics in 1994 with 12 lipsticks encouraging self expression and a no rules philosophy of beauty inspired by colour, texture and purity. It first became available in Barney's in New York, and when it was so successful Nars released a full range of cosmetics for NARS. The first advertising campaign took place in 1996 and Nars ended up photographing the whole campaign himself as he didn't have a high enough budget to pay a top photographer to do it for him. This was when he realised he had a talent for taking photo's and was soon asked to photograph for Vogue Paris, Harpers Bazaar and Vanity Fair.
Due to his new found passion for photography Francois Nars released a book under the name of X-Ray in 1999 where he captured the unique style and personality of all of his subjects in the portraits which he styled himself as well. The models were of all ages, races, famous, non-famous, rich and poor - a very diverse book of portraiture. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/X-ray-Photographs-Francois-Nars/dp/050054235X

Following from his first book Francois Nars continued to release a second book in 2001 called Makeup Your Mind which features all of the top models of the time and is a how-to beauty book showing women how to enhance their natural beauty, showcasing his two talents, photography and his first love make-up.

http://www.amazon.com/Makeup-Your-Mind-Francois-Nars/dp/1576870995

http://www.amazon.com/Makeup-Your-Mind-Francois-Nars/dp/1576870995

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the latest book by Nars called Makeup Your Mind: Express Yourself published in 2011 in which he uses real men and women to show the power of make-up with how-to's and notes on which products were used for each part of the look. I can't wait to have a proper read of this book and write a post on it with some of my favourite images.

"My hope for this book, and for my makeup, is to give you the information and tools with which to express yourself in as many different ways as you can dream up." - Francois Nars

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/444237950724554729/

Today Francois Nars is a professional photographers and one of the most famous, respected beauty make-up artists of all time. He is the only photographer for NARS campaigns and the creative director for NARS while it is ever expanding.


References:
http://narscosmetics.co.uk/en_GB/francois-nars.html
http://en.vogue.fr/vogue-list/thevoguelist/franois-nars/1013
http://www.narscosmetics.com/USA/makeup-your-mind%3A-express-yourself/0607845032045.html