How did the idea for your own line come about?
"Well, a couple of years ago when I was creative director of the Estée Lauder brand, I was constantly challenged with how to keep the brand fresh and add a new element of surprise. How to maintain the heritage, but at the same time creating newness and bring in a new consumer. So, I had this idea of what’s inside my makeup bag — people are always asking me, 'you’ve been in beauty for so many years, Estée was your grandmother, you’ve been exposed to the best makeup artists, fashion shows, so you must have the best beauty secrets!' I had this idea of doing this capsule beauty collection of what’s in my makeup bag, and that’s literally what [the first collection for the brand] the Essentials is. It literally all fits inside the cute little pouch, even the cream. The collection is divided into the Essentials, and then we’ll do four color collections a year: The first one is Weekend, Week Day, and we’re going to do Holiday, Spring, and Summer. It’s either based on a fashion trend or a lifestyle trend — every season it’s different."

"I thought there was an opportunity to do something special, luxurious, unique, and feminine in the world of beauty and beauty accessories. And, we did makeup bags, slippers, and hairbrushes for that [Estée Lauder] Private Collection boutique at Bergdorf’s, which did very well. So, that was kind of a wonderful first step for this."

Inside Aerin's conference room, overlooking Madison Avenue and just down the street from the Estée Lauder Cos. HQ. Blouse and pants by Stella McCartney, shoes by Manolo Blahnik.

Photographed by Ben Fink Shapiro