You know how El Camino Real means “The Royal Road”? And have you noticed the number of luxury/beauty brands that are taking the high road of collaborating with famous artists? They do it to ramp up their prestige and coolness factor and, of course, to drive sales. I think Marc Jacobs started it all back in 2003 when he invited Takashi Murakami to design handbags for Louis Vuitton, and the resulting collection sold like gangbusters worldwide. (Incidentally, LV just announced that they have enlisted another Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusuma, for a special product line.)

Murakami for Louis Vuitton. White Speedy multicolor handbag. Spring 2003.

This past fall, MAC Cosmetics teamed up with Cindy Sherman* to create limited-edition make-up palettes.

Cindy Sherman for MAC Cosmetics. The collection was available for one month, ending October 27, 2011.

And artsy partnerships were all the rage at Art Basel Miami last month. Christian Dior took the plunge in collaborating with Berlin-based Anselm Reyle—known for his “hard-edge striped canvases made in glossy auto paint and glitter; monumental assemblages of silver foil, pulsating LEDs, and flashy fluorescent drips“—to debut an exclusive line of Day-Glo-printed accessories at Dior’s pop-up shop. In addition to handbags, shoes and nail polish, Reyle designed an eye shadow compact which was recently made available at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Anselm Reyle for Dior. Eye shadow palette. $110 at saks.com. Limit six per customer.

When I saw the camo swirl of pigments, I thought of this cool tree bark that I came across in Georgetown.

Textured tree bark. (I rotated the image 90 degrees.)

Colorful camouflage was also a trend at the Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collections.

Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2012 RTW.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

*MoMA will show a retrospective of Cindy Sherman’s work next month.  The exhibition will run from February 26 through June 11, 2012.
MoMA | 11 West 53 Street | New York, NY  10019 | 212.708.9400 | moma.org

Photos via racked.com, saks.com and style.com

Update on October 10, 2012: An article in today’s New York Times about how “artists…are collaborating with cosmetics companies on so-called collectible packaging and products of various affordability.”