Rock and Republic gets pretty (and a makeup line)

Lipstick and denim go together like… well do they?

Rock and Republic, the high-end denim line featuring Miranda Kerr in their ads among other similarly scantily clad babes, sure hopes so. The label is set to launch a new 116 piece makeup collection come September. While the company has yet to venture into the beauty world, they do carry everything from belts, eveywear, shoes, and bags, so perhaps makeup is the next logical step in further expanding the brand.

“I didn’t want to do a private label,” Andrea Bernholtz, Rock and Republic’s president told WWD “I wanted to use my own. We have been using other lines, (for the catwalk shows) and we were like, ‘Screw it! We’ll do it ourselves.'”

The range will include items like a caffeine-infused tinted primer, to an oil control illuminator, as well as your usual selection of cosmetics while the packaing will include slick silver and black patent leather packaging.

But will this new venture be profitable for them? If they can create a killer bronzer to mimic their sultry models’ skin, perhaps so, but so few makeup lines associated with labels are huge successes, Armani, YSL, and other high-end lines being the exception. If they make like Urban Decay and target the youth demographic with glitter and poppy lipgloss, they could very well make a killing, but this is a denim label so it might be difficult to see them as anything else.

Rock and Republic sure aren’t taking on the beauty market with small steps, but will you be buying it?

— Laura Wasson