Ammy Drammeh on Deconstructing Chanel’s Rouge Noir and the New Luxury of Time
In the rarefied world of haute beauté, few roles are as coveted—or as weighty—as that of a Global Makeup Creative Partner at Chanel. It requires a delicate balancing act: honoring the colossal shadow of Gabrielle Chanel while fiercely carving out a path for the future. Sitting down with Ammy Drammeh, a member of the Cometes Collective, one quickly realizes she is not just walking this tightrope; she is dancing on it.
Drammeh possesses a calm, grounded aura that belies the electric boldness of her creations. As we speak, the conversation naturally drifts to the concept of luxury—a word often diluted in our hyper-fast digital age. For Drammeh, however, true luxury has shed its old skin of mere price tags and opulence.
“Luxury is about how you treat your life,” Drammeh muses, her voice contemplative. “It is about creating products that are not meant for trends that come and go. It’s about creating something honest.”
In an industry where brands sprint to launch products in three weeks, Chanel moves at a deliberate, almost meditative pace. Drammeh reveals that a single product can take two years of rigorous development. This, she argues, is the ultimate indulgence: the freedom to take time, to obsess over details until a creation feels „true.“ It is a philosophy that mirrors Mademoiselle Chanel herself, who took humble materials and transformed them through sheer force of creativity.
The Deconstruction of a Legend
Our conversation turns to the centerpiece of the new collection: Rouge Noir. It is perhaps the most mythical shade in beauty history—that deep, vampy, dried-blood red that defined the 90s and remains a symbol of subversive chic.
But Drammeh didn’t just want to replicate the color; she wanted to dissect it.
“I literally dissected the color, looking at it like under a microscope to see what is inside,” she explains. She describes holding the glass bottle of Rouge Noir nail polish against the light, observing the „gap“ where the liquid meets the glass. In that liminal space, Rouge Noir reveals its secrets. It isn’t just black-red. It is a prism of hidden magentas, stony greys, mauves, and deep purples.
This deconstruction became the blueprint for the collection. “Even though you see a magenta pink, it doesn’t feel alien to Rouge Noir,” Drammeh says. “Because it is inside it.”
The Muse: Dangerous and Divine
Who is the woman (or man) intended for this collection? When I suggest a „Scorpio driving an old black Mustang“—a figure of dark allure—Drammeh lights up.
“It’s dangerous,” she agrees with a smile. “The person who wears Rouge Noir knows exactly what they want. They are not afraid of what people are going to say. They are mysterious, but surprising.”
Yet, the genius of Drammeh’s approach lies in its versatility. By pulling apart the DNA of the color, she has created a spectrum that invites everyone in. There are the grounding greys for the understated, the electric magentas for the playful, and the classic deep reds for the bold. It is a collection for the irreverent elegant.
The Art of the Palette
When pressed to choose a favorite, Drammeh hesitates—like a mother asked to pick a favorite child—before settling on the palette. It is the workhorse of the collection, a satin-textured marvel designed to break boundaries.
“You have a red that is reminiscent of Rouge Noir, but in a very elegant way,” she notes, encouraging a fearless approach to applying red pigments around the eyes—a technique that makes blue and green eyes pierce through the room. It is a tool for transformation, capable of shifting from a soft, satiny whisper to a sharp, graphic roar.
As our time draws to a close, it becomes clear that Ammy Drammeh is doing more than just making makeup. She is an archivist of emotion and a sculptor of color. In her hands, a lipstick is never just a lipstick; it is a memory, a mood, and above all, a piece of honest luxury meant to last forever.
“I’m just so lucky that I work doing something I love,” she concludes, a sentiment that feels as genuine as the products she creates. “That is my luxury.”
By Elena Steness