With Help From Jenna Ortega, Dior Beauty Paints Paris Red

Jenna Ortega

Dior turned the gilded David Lynch–designed club Silencio into a scarlet fantasy straight out of Twin Peaks to celebrate the launch of Rouge Dior On Stage, its latest line of high-shine lipsticks. Walls glowed with Dior logos, lipsticks were artfully displayed at every turn, and Dior-branded cocktails kept the party flowing. Hosting the evening was Jenna Ortega—face of the new campaign—alongside Peter Philips, the house’s Creative and Image Director for Dior Makeup.

Oversized glam portraits of Ortega in the campaign greeted guests as they snapped selfies and tested every shade on offer. The star herself leaned into the theme, arriving in a goth-chic oversized white shirtdress, black blazer, and tie. Her look was punctuated by a custom lip mix of Rouge Dior On Stage shades 390 and 496, crafted by Philips, plus a softened smoky eye in black and silver. “I said, ‘Let’s do something a little bit more editorial—but not scare the marketing team,’” Philips laughed. He noted her lipstick look lasted through a four-course dinner before the festivities began. Ortega described the makeup as an elevated take on her signature: “I always have a really smudged eyeliner on, mainly because I don’t know how to keep it in place,” she told Vogue. “But I don’t really mind.”

Though Ortega’s moody style is often linked to her Wednesday character, she insists she doesn’t take cues from her roles. “I’m not one to take my characters home,” she explained. “I think in recent years I’ve adjusted to the position I’m in, and it’s really important to speak my mind and wear what feels most comfortable. I don’t like anything too clean or too done up—I think I tend to lean more masculine.”

Fresh from a birthday in the French countryside, Ortega spoke of inspiration from an upcoming indie project and Federico Fellini’s surreal 1968 film Toby Dammit. “It’s quite silly and outrageous. There’s this scene where Toby shouts at an award show, ‘What am I doing? What do you want from me?’ That’s how I feel on a day-to-day basis,” she laughed. “And then there’s the Devil—depicted as a little girl in a white dress holding a balloon. Sometimes I feel like her, especially if I’m in a delirious mood.” Her current playlist echoes that edge: Iggy Pop, James Chance and the Contortions, Siouxsie Sioux, and Lydia Lunch.

The party drew a glamorous crowd: Anna Sawai, Jennifer Lawrence, Razane Jammal, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, and Mallory Wanecque toasted the launch while Isabella Massenet and Chloé Groovy DJed late into the night. Philips, meanwhile, kept one eye on the week ahead, where he’ll design beauty looks for Jonathan Anderson’s Dior womenswear debut. “The girls are going to look radiant—and the clothes are fantastic,” he promised. A shining launch, indeed, for Dior’s shiniest new lipstick.