Exclusive! Giambattista Valli’s New MAC Cosmetics Collaboration: Dress Your Lips in Valli Red (or Pink or Mandarin or Peony)

“Probably I have the opposite problem of somebody who has no ideas,” saysGiambattista Valli, laughing into the telephone as he soaks in the sunshine during a recent escape to Los Angeles. (You can almost hear his suntan.) “I have too many ideas, and I need a lot of projects to do all of them!” The Paris-based designer (who in 2015 will be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of his self-titled fashion house) has just announced plans for a small bouquet of a lip-color collection—arriving in five blooming, freshly cut garden shades that will launch next summer in collaboration with MAC Cosmetics.

“I’m very well known for dresses, no? And I thought it was very nice, the idea of dressing your lips,” says Valli, whose preoccupation with all things floral has been known to manifest itself in everything from a cascade of sequin-crafted coral poppies to a cherry blossom–strewn day coat or the bloom-bedecked couture concoction that Amal Clooney stepped out in for her Venice post-nuptials, and is now resurfacing in the indubitably pretty, flora-inspired lipsticks. To bring his first makeup collection to life, he turned to the pros at MAC, who have worked with him backstage from the beginning. “For a creative person, collaborating can be frustrating because you feel that you’re limited or stuck within someone else’s ideas, but with MAC it was 100 percent freedom and 100 percent support just to make my idea become a reality, to pull out my flowers and my sense and my emotion and put it into the color,” says Valli, who drew from a range of hues from past collections for a palette that would flatter women on an international scale—as well as a few less expected references, like one shade born from a meeting in which he delivered a single cherry to the MAC team. (They aced it, by the way—“It’s the exact color of that cherry!” Valli crows.)

From a pale sixties pink to a deep plum (with additional shades of peony; mandarin; and warm, red rose), there is a lip color for every Valli girl out there—with a matte finish and clever, colorful tubes to match (no more fumbling to check inside the bullet!)—and a lip gloss to top it off, should the situation require a hint of shine. “The best thing about makeup is that a lipstick can really change your look. If you never wear color on your lips and then one day you wear red, everyone just goes ‘wow!’” Valli muses. “I made these for a woman with personality, a woman who lives her life and isn’t afraid to wear color and isn’t afraid to kiss!” With shades this winning, somehow we don’t think she’ll be lacking in opportunities.

MAC Giambattista Valli Collection, available in summer 2015