Florals and Family: The Influences That Shaped Erdem’s New Makeup Collab With Nars

“I’m not the best gardener,” confesses Erdem Moralioglu. It’s an ironic admission for the Montreal-born, London-based fashion designer for whom florals are a recurring theme. (He is trying, though: He mentions that he just returned from Holland, where he bought some tulips.) Carnations, irises, poppies and, his favourite, anemones, have all figured at one time or another in his collections. And although flowers by their very nature seem fragile, Moralioglu is drawn to them because he feels they represent feminine strength. “They’re a force of nature,” he says. “They’re resilient, and they regrow.”

This appreciation for blooms was the starting point for his limited-edition makeup collaboration with Nars called “Strange Flowers.” To help him wrap his head around the concept for the collab, Moralioglu decided to divide it into the four seasons.

“It helped guide me in terms of thinking about the palette and about plants that grow at certain times of the year,” he says. Once the parameters of which colours worked with others were set, he started to play, ensuring that the collection had breadth as well as contrast. “My work has always been about the push and pull of the delicate and the bold—the idea of lightness and darkness.

See (and shop) the entire Erdem Nars collaboration:

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Erdem Nars Collaboration

Erdem Strange Flowers Poison Rose Lip Powder Palette
($62, Nars Cosmetics)

Moralioglu is drawn to a “magnetic lip that you see from very far away.” It reminds him of his pale-skinned, blue-eyed mother, whose only cosmetic was red lipstick. “Whenever she wore it, it was like red on a white sheet of paper—very saturated,” he recalls. The Poison Rose Lip Powder Palette contains a balm with four shades that are applied on top for a vivid mouth.

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