“Makeup is not there to cover but to uncover”

Make-up Olympus has a new hero. He is handsome, talented, excessively kind, hypersensitive and “very Greek”, he smiles in excellent French. Its motto ? “Makeup is not there to cover but to uncover.” This vision, Gregoris Pyrpylis shares it deeply with the house of Hermès, of which he is the new director of beauty creation. A story of artist and craftsman that owes nothing to chance.

From the acropolis to the catwalk

At the dawn of the 2000s, nothing predestined this son of a pharmacist to play the Adonis of brushes. As a teenager, Gregoris dreams of becoming an English teacher, a language that has always fascinated him. Except that in the small town where he grew up, there is a kiosk where the blankets of vogue, Harpers Bazaar Where Your beauty eye him. There is also his natural inclination for aesthetics, painting, fashion, decoration… And the beginnings of Fashion TV which broadcasts fashion shows, interviews with top models and designers… “But I didn’t even imagine that we can make a job out of it”, remembers the young man.

In 2004, he arrived in Athens to study English at university, did some modeling and started doing make-up for delighted friends who were asking for more. “A revelation. In one week, I changed everything in my life and enrolled in a make-up school, then a second… While continuing my studies and taking a job in a pastry shop so as not to owe my parents anything. In 2007, at the age of 21, he began his career in the MAC store in Athens. A baptism of fire that confronts him with the reality of women of all ages and backgrounds. Two years later, he becomes makeup artist official of Maybelline New York for Greece and Cyprus, works for the fashion-beauty series of local magazines and some celebrities. But Greece is a small country for such big dreams.

To succeed, you have to be in Paris, New York or London. Destiny is Tom Pecheux, star make-up artist for fashion shows and Estée Lauder. “I will always remember September 21, 2012, says still moved Gregoris. When I learned that he was taking me on as his assistant, I cried in the middle of rue Montorgeuil. I felt that moment would change everything.” He only knows two words of French, “bonjour and bonsoir”. Not serious. For Gregoris, every day is a school and a new challenge.

The color in the skin

Alongside Tom, Gregoris meets the greatest, Karl Lagerfeld, Mario Testino, top models, Hollywood actresses, and changes focus: “In Greece, a mixture of Europe and the Middle East, women like intense and signed looks, he underlines. I learned the meaning of shade and started working with my hands. Even today, I always finish a finger makeup. I also realized the importance of the skin, its preparation, the quality of the products used.” He who was already putting on moisturizer at the age of 15 then continued the adventure at Bioderma, a favorite brand of celebrities, where he collaborated with dermatologists and scientists. In 2018, he was appointed ambassador for Shiseido in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. New experience, new culture, new art of textures. In parallel, the makeup artist continues the parades, the shots, and establishes contacts with actresses, including his muse Lætitia Casta, who swears by him.

The confinement forces him to stop his race. “It was scary at first, but it allowed me to find a new independence and to carry out personal projects.” In August 2021, the Moires sign him again. He is contacted by Hermès, the house he has always dreamed of. “For me, it’s absolute elegance, the fusion of art and craftsmanship, freedom of expression, history, creativity, France, but also a feeling. There is a very Greek element to Hermès. A light that dresses all creations. I felt like I was coming home.” The meeting with the management team, Agnès de Villers, Pierre-Alexis and Axel Dumas confirms his intuition.

“Even if I arrive in the adventure along the way, everything is so fluid, natural, like evidence. My whole journey is finally making sense. Like the brand, I have always defended a natural and timeless beauty that highlights the texture of the skin, the light… Not a bland beauty that “can’t be seen” but which reveals the personality or a facet of oneself that sometimes we do not suspect. A woman does not have only one face. Make-up must help to express oneself and to give confidence, to emphasize the singularity of each one. A single touch of concealer or a red lip can change everything. It is also a beauty that values ​​the gesture, the hand that creates, the time. His only frustration, the collection he’s working on won’t be released until… 2024. If his main quality is curiosity, he admits a small flaw: impatience.