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John Demsey’s Gap Years

In 2022, the legendary Estée Lauder Companies executive got himself canceled—and temporarily exiled from the industry’s polite society. With a new appointment at Gap Inc. and multiple consulting gigs, he’s back on the scene.

John Demsey
Despite his cancellation, Demsey never entirely disappeared, perhaps because large swaths of the industry seemed to excuse his transgression as the work of a Boomer with underdeveloped social media skills. Photo: Neil Rasmus/BFA.com
Rachel Strugatz
December 10, 2025

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One of the year’s most interesting beauty appointments was announced in September, when Gap Inc. brought on John Demsey, the controversial veteran executive, to help oversee the group’s ambitious plans. The company has spent the better part of the last two decades trying to recapture the magic of the Mickey Drexler era—and, from a purely talent perspective, Demsey might have seemed like the ideal candidate. The gig was also basically a formality: After all, Demsey has been working behind the scenes on Gap and Old Navy’s respective beauty businesses for the last year and a half.