COOPERATIONS
MARLÈNE
Ekaterina Koroleva
2017
THE FIRST LE MANOIR PROJECT
Marlène
"Marlène" is one of the first Le Manoir Art project in which the illustrator Ekaterina Koroleva interprets the genesis of Le Manoir skin care with the persona of Marlene. „Marlène“ is a fictional name for a real person, the famous French actress who is the origin of the brand Le Manoir.
Make-up as a metaphor
Marlène takes us into the world of film, to a film location in Luxembourg, to be precisely, where the first Le Manoir cream was created. Due to the constant putting on and taking off of make-up, the skin of the French leading actress was so overexcited that she could not stand another mask.
As a philosophical abstraction, “make-up” as the modern version of the theatrical mask is also fascinating as a metaphor: It can be interpreted as a symbol for all social masks. Sometimes they are forced on us; sometimes we don them ourselves in order to live up to an ideal. Yet these masks prevent us from being our own individual selves.
Le Manoir Art: inspiration and creativity
At Le Manoir Art, the aim is to inspire. Marlène not only represents the actress on the film set in Luxembourg, but also symbolises our philosophy, in which creativity plays a major role. We want to raise questions so that we can find answers in future projects. Marlène is there to remind us of the importance of lateral thinking and of discovering what we, personally, care about – and therefore what is really important to us. Because that alone is true luxury.
The power of a single line
Ekaterina Koroleva also created the beauty illustrations for the care routine on our homepage. What we particularly like are Ekaterina’s focused brushstrokes and the expression in her paintings – it is fascinating to see how much a single line can say and how, through deliberate omission, room for interpretation can be created.
In many facets, the project reflects on the philosophy of Le Manoir. It is about a strong woman, resting in herself, aware of herself. The Illustration Marlène was created from Ekaterina's original drawing you can see above.