NEW YORK, USA // James Gager was born in the honeymoon capital of the world, Niagara Falls, New York, and it’s safe to say this breathtaking force of nature had an effect on him; over the course of his career, he has worked with the expectation that art, and life, should thrill; that aesthetics must always engage – and even produce a little adrenaline. Mr. Gager, Senior Vice President/Creative Director of M·A·C Cosmetics since 1999, leads from M·A·C’s and fashion’s edge and even his most dramatic implementations are in harmony with the brand’s original DNA and renegade culture. Within his first year at M·A·C, he launched “Time Rocker,” a colour collection, illustrated with an image of a man that pays homage to the tradition of glam rock – shocking to some since it was a collection for women.
Everything he touches, from blueprints to C-prints becomes infused with an outpour of creativity. In the beauty world, his creativity honours and perpetuates landmarks. But it is not the world of beauty, per se, that influences him. Much like a visionary curator, Mr. Gager weaves into the M·A·C brand a vast array of cultural influences from architectural design to surrealism to haute couture. John Demsey, President, M·A·C Cosmetics, calls Mr. Gager, “One part Philip Johnson, one part Alex Liberman and one part Walt Disney.” Mr. Gager has, in fact, even overseen the design of the M·A·C SoHo office. In this open, interactive space, formerly an art gallery, he has cultivated an air of creative exchange so virtually free of boundaries that Mr. Gager is visually accessible at all times, as his office has a sliding door of clear glass. Since Mr. Gager joined M·A·C Cosmetics, the company has become the fastest-growing Estée Lauder brand. His collaborator for over a decade, Jennifer Balbier, Senior Vice Product/Global Product Development calls their partnership synergistic and dynamic, adding, “His thoughts are modern… constantly evolving and moving to a better place.”
When Mr. Gager recounts his earliest “business ventures,” they seem, in a strange way, to foreshadow his future career. “My best friend and I had an art school; we taught art classes to kids our own age and we would then go around to their parents and advise them on the progress of their children. We also had a greeting card business and we would go door to door with a little catalogue of cards and take orders, then go and make them. And we had another business where we would draw people’s homes and then go up and show them the drawing of their house. Hopefully, they would buy it. I guess somehow that certainly ties in with what I do today from an entrepreneurial sense.” This is all the more remarkable when Mr. Gager reveals that he embarked on these ventures when he was only nine years old. Call it an aura, vibe or vision, the Gager ideology pervades everything from collection concepts and window fixtures, to the idea of celebrating mature beauty with the M·A·C Beauty Icons series. Mr. Gager is constantly evolving the provocative visuals for M·A·C. He is hands-on with the images that promote M·A·C’s some 60 annual collections including collaborations with fashion designers from Gareth Pugh to Alexander McQueen; with artists from Marilyn Minter to Cindy Sherman; and with many fashion icons, from Daphne Guinness to Iris Apfel. Always looking to mix it up while staying true to the brand’s DNA, he conceptualized M·A·C Me Over!, an online contest where thousands of unknowns entered to be one of the six faces of the Fall campaign visualized at counters around the world. The contest reflected M·A·C’s All Ages, All Races, All Sexes mantra – Mr. Gager chose them for their style, heart and soul.
To create M·A·C’s potent pictures, he has worked with Steven Klein, Tim Walker, Hiro, Sølve Sundsbø, Richard Burbridge, Mert & Marcus, and Miles Aldridge, as well as with numerous illustrators.Under Mr. Gager’s guidance, M·A·C produces over 40 collections and how-to videos a year featuring everyone from downtown celebrities to world-renowned Makeup Artists. For Fall 2011, he introduced the concept of a video riser for Gareth Pugh’s colour collection, directed by Ruth Hogben.
He has engaged high-profile photographers David LaChapelle and Michael Thompson to shoot the VIVA GLAM campaign, which is based on a lipstick that supports people living with HIV and AIDS. In the tradition of M·A·C, Mr. Gager began with music celebrities – Shirley Manson, Lil’ Kim, Mary J. Blige, and Elton John – and ultimately widened M·A·C’s vision to encompass artists in other disciplines including Chloë Sevigny, Linda Evangelista and Dita Von Teese. The choice of Lady Gaga (before “Poker Face” hit the charts) resulted in the most successful campaign to date. He has essentially taken what was a grassroots campaign with a drag queen, RuPaul, to international acclaim, making each spokesperson iconic during their VIVA GLAM tenure.
“M·A·C, for me at this point of my career, is a really different experience from everywhere else I’ve worked because I have a lot of creative autonomy,” says Mr. Gager. Before coming to M·A·C, Mr. Gager was the image guru behind Estée Lauder’s Prescriptives for 20 years, refreshing the beauty and skincare business with programs like Colourprinting and Virtual Skin and infusing the brand with a distinctive personality. His ALL SKINS campaign targeted a trend as it was about to explode.
“At M·A·C, I can pull into the brand my aesthetic and my interests and I’m involved with every aspect from product development and marketing, to the creativity and look and feel of the brand to the copywriting,” says Mr. Gager. “At other jobs I’ve had, I’d touched on a lot of these things but working for M·A·C, it’s all come together.” John Demsey credits Mr. Gager with having a sort of cosmic antenna, an uncanny ability to foresee trends that seem cutting-edge but are rich with commercial potential.
Mr. Gager views his recent election to the Board of Directors of the M·A·C AIDS Fund as a highlight of his career, as important as any design award. “Beauty is a hard thing to define. We all have our own idea of what beauty is,” says Mr. Gager. “I like to think that I see something positive in everything around me and it’s significant for me to be working for a brand with a social conscience that is making a difference.” In addition to his responsibilities at M·A·C, he assumed the role of Global Creative Director for Jo Malone London and La Mer in 2010.
Mr. Gager received his Bachelor of Industrial Design and a Master of Science in Package Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He has received numerous awards, including a FiFi for his fragrance bottle for Prescriptives’ Flirt. Mr. Gager’s work has appeared in magazines and museums around the world. His interest in design pervades his life and surroundings as witnessed by the constant media coverage of his living environments.
When asked to name his greatest accomplishment, Mr. Gager says, “To work with phenomenal groups of people. I’ve watched them grow and change and I feel there’s a real camaraderie and family and community here.”