MAC<\/a> he was senior vice president and creative director at Prescriptives, \u201ca brand very far ahead of its time,\u201d Gager reminisced. \u201cI worked with great people there \u2014 Sylvie Chantecaille, Jane Hudis \u2014 and had a lot of freedom to create a vision that people hadn\u2019t seen before within the beauty industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tHe brought that same sense of vision to MAC when Leonard A. Lauder tapped him for the brand, then led by John Demsey. He jumped at the opportunity, eager to forward its mission of all ages, races and sexes.<\/p>\n
\n\tGager stepped down from his role in 2017, but his creative streak remains strong. An avid photographer, his work caught the eye of gallery owner Cheryl Hazan, who hosted Gager\u2019s first show, called \u201cFor the Senses,\u201d this summer.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"From](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tFrom James Gager\u2019s \u201cFor the Senses\u201d photo exhibition.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n
\n\tHere, Gager dishes on his careers and all forms of beauty.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat is most memorable about your time at MAC?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThat job was the most incredible moment in my entire career. I got to work with every amazing celebrity, every amazing photographer, stylist, makeup artist that I could have dreamed of. The experiences I had \u2014 I think about them periodically. There I am sitting in Liza Minnelli\u2019s bathroom, on the ledge of her bathtub, watching her show me how she became Liza Minnelli, starting with no face, no makeup on. Then, at the end, asking me what I thought of her hair. I\u2019m not a hairstylist, but I worked with the best of the best. I started saying: \u201cMaybe it should be a little fluffier.\u201d I did something to her hair with my hands, and suddenly she\u2019s like: \u201cOh my god, I love this!\u201d Meeting other people like Elton John, Catherine Deneuve, Raquel Welch. Working with Dame Edna, watching RuPaul become RuPaul. Just craziness in my life.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was the key change you witnessed while working in beauty?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tCertainly, the advent of social media and Instagram changed everything. People who became influencers and hadn\u2019t had a lot of training or exposure to beauty suddenly garnered a lot of attention. It became a challenge \u2014 they were big personalities, versus people with expertise. I\u2019m not putting them down in any way, shape or form, but they began to influence the consumer in ways that we\u2019d never seen before.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow do you adapt to that? How do you go with it? How do you utilize it to maximize what you\u2019re trying to do? So the whole dynamic shifted and became a totally different industry from what I had worked in.<\/p>\n
\n\tPeople \u2014 who aren\u2019t even in the beauty industry or in any particular industry \u2014 can create trends immediately. Everybody is creative in their own right. You get to be a lot more than you ever could before. The exposure is amazing globally.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat\u2019s your view of the industry today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI don\u2019t find it terribly aspirational. I don\u2019t find it entertaining, and lots of times I don\u2019t even find it beautiful. I probably have a different point of view than the average consumer on beauty, because I want to see creativity. I want to see products used in new ways, colors used in new ways, new textures \u2014 things of that nature.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow did you get into photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHaving worked with so many amazing photographers, I was always intrigued by what they did. With the advent of the iPhone, I started taking lots of photographs, but not photographs of people. I was taking abstract shots of, say, a shaft of light on a leaf, or a close-up of this, or a close-up of that \u2014 finding moments which I discovered and probably nobody else has ever seen. Then I started working on layering of all my shots, cropping and doing different techniques on them. Everything was abstract.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s been amazing for me and surprising. I did the work because I wanted my own creative outlet, since I wasn\u2019t in the industry anymore. What turned into my own personal joy I\u2019ve been able to share with lots of other people. It\u2019s been really wonderful.<\/p>\n
\n\tAll the process of creation is one that is so amazing. A germ of an idea suddenly becomes a house, a photograph, a garden you can walk through or an amazing cake that you can enjoy.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow do you describe beauty?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tTo me, beauty was canvas, and I liked working with the products of a canvas and seeing how makeup artists played with them, what they could create with them \u2014 and that\u2019s not everyday life. But it was my career, and we created looks that perhaps weren\u2019t wearable, but they always sparked an interest in people. They could be toned down as much as you wanted them to be.<\/p>\n
\n\tI just enjoy beauty in whatever form it comes in. Sometimes ugly is beautiful, and beautiful is beautiful. It\u2019s kind of like how I see my life, I guess.<\/p>\n
\n\t[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING IS A SIDEBAR]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tJames Gager\u2019s Top 5 Products<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t(Plated) Skin Science Intense Serum<\/strong> <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t(Plated) Skin Science Intense Serum <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Plated<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an exosome-driven product, one a dermatologist turned me on to a while ago. I love it. It kind of regenerates your skin and gives you amazing clarity and texture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEst\u00e9e Lauder<\/a> Advanced Night Repair<\/strong> <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tEst\u00e9e Lauder Advanced Night Repair<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Est\u00e9e Lauder<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an essential every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSkinCeuticals C E Ferulic<\/strong> <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSkinCeuticals C E Ferulic<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of SkinCeuticals<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing product. I like the clarity and renewal of your skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCeraVe moisturizers<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCeraVe Moisturizing Cream<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Cerave<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey do a really beautiful job. Their body creams, body lotions and face moisturizer are really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCharlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow<\/strong> <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCharlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Charlotte Tilbury<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s great when you\u2019re going somewhere to put a little on your skin. It gives you an amazing glow and it\u2019s not shiny.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gager\u2019s life has always been colorful. The former MAC Cosmetics senior vice president and creative director dreamed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,274206,19,17,2839,38319],"class_list":["post-648515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-estu00e9e-lauder","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mac","tag-wwdbeautyinc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117131824573449542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}