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Jada Brookes

reviews the colour explosive Miles of

M•A•C, the collaborative art of MAC Cosmetics and

fashion photographer Miles Aldridge.

their two imaginary worlds collide, the

author’s aim is to “share a side of this

collaborative effort that perhaps people

haven’t seen” and the hope that the book

“serves as an inspiration for art directors,

make-up artists, set designers, hairstylists

and anyone with an interest in image-

making.”

This beautifully close knit working

relationship between the two men is

captured in a short note from Miles to

James. It reads, ‘Looking back over these

pictures, seeing again all this beauty and

weirdness is like being on a rollercoaster

rushing backwards as it loops thru

make-up rooms and photo studios from

London to New York and back again. In

these laboratories of GLAMOUR we

plotted together, encouraged each other

to go further… more BEAUTIFUL, more

COLOURFUL, more CHIC… more MAC!

Looking forward to more experiments

together and what strange beauties we

will find there.’ Legendary make-up artist

Val Garland reveals her experience of

‘making magic with James and Miles’ while

curator and author Valerie Steele takes a

close look at the work of MAC and Miles

Aldridge. Excited at working with James

and MAC for the first time, Val recalls,

“There was no real storyboard, which was

totally unheard of in those days. It was as

if James was testing my mettle – like he

was saying, ‘Go on Val, I know you’re into

spontaneity and being of the moment…

let’s see how creative you are.’ He handed

me 16 eye shadow colours and said, ‘Do

your thing.’” In her account, curatorValerie

Steele compares Miles and James to image

pioneers such as Richard Avedon, whose

1950s photographs evoke scenes from

a glamorous life, or stills from a film. She

writes, “If we look at the images created

by Miles Aldridge and James Gager for

MAC Cosmetics, we find a similar focus

on storytelling, although the narrative is

usually more oblique.”

Over the following pages, we find amazing

and colourful imagery that magnifies the

extent of MAC’s creativity in make-up with

titles such as ‘Tickled in Pink’, ‘All That Is

Gold! And Not Glitter’ and ‘When I Dare

To Wear This – It’s Red Alert’, each one

telling an amazing story. For example, one

of the MAC campaigns shows a young

woman with a halo of dark hair, blue eye

shadow and red lips, driving in a car. As

she clutches the red steering wheel tightly

with both hands, she glances to the side,

as if looking in her side mirror. Looking

at the shot taken through the windscreen

covered with drops of rain and the way

T

he lips on the model are deliciously

sensuous, full of radiant and glossy

colour, and forms the covering

picture of the book,

Miles of M•A•C

by

James Gager. This inspirational, high

fashion book celebrates the drama of the

make-up artistry of MAC and features

stunning pictures captured by iconic

fashion photographer Miles Aldridge.

James Gager, the group creative director

of MAC informs us in his introduction,

“Both Miles and I constantly create

scenarios in our head.I know that my mind

works in some very unconventional ways

– coming up with little visual vignettes,

making up stories from what is happening

around me… Miles is a magical storyteller

with his visual ideas, and often sketches

out concepts in his drawing pad before we

both sit down to embellish the scenarios –

fleshing out the characters and situations

until they start to feel real to us.” Out of

the innumerable leading visual talents that

James and MAC have worked with, one

of the longest relationships is with Miles

Aldridge. Together they have created an

amazing body of work, some of which

has already been seen, and much of which

appears in the book for the first time.

A book full of pictures depicting where

bite

bookreview

MAC

Miles

OF