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Bob Mackie, the legendary Emmy- and Tony-winning fashion and costume designer, has died. He was 87.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today. He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a Fashion and Costume Designer, which is all he ever wanted to do,” the designer’s team wrote in an Instagram statement on Monday, Sept. 14. “His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world.”
Mackie was famous for his signature embellished and beaded fashion and costume designs for icons such as Cher, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, and more.
Born in Monterey Park, California, on March 24, 1939, Mackie always dreamed of being a famous designer.
“I always knew what I wanted to do,” the designer said in a 2021 interview with People. “But I knew I was in trouble when my parents gave me a catcher’s mitt for Christmas. Then my good aunt gave me a jewelry-making kit. I made a few pairs of earrings, and that was that.”
After enrolling in Pasadena City College, he then transferred to the Chouinard Art Institute but left after one year. In 1961, he began working as a sketch artist for costumer designer Edith Head at Paramount Studios. Mackie eventually got his big break when Mitzi Gaynor hired him to create costumes for her Las Vegas stage show. He later worked with Gaynor on her TV specials, which resulted in two Emmy wins for the designer.
But his longest partnership was with comedy legend Carol Burnett, beginning in 1967 on “The Carol Burnett Show.” In 2016, the duo reflected on their decades-long collaboration in an interview with George V Magazine.
One of the most memorable Mackie designs was Burnett’s green-velvet curtain dress for her “Gone With the Wind” parody, “Went With the Wind,” which is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Burnett explained that while the sketch was brilliantly written, it called for “Starlett” to “come down the stairs with the curtains just hanging” on her. Mackie, thinking the visual element could be funnier, “came up with the idea of making the dress with the curtain rod. I fell on the floor.”
“That one’s going to be carved on my gravestone,” Mackie said. “It wasn’t until the last minute that I decided to do it like that. I said, ‘Well, that’ll get some kind of a laugh.’ It got an enormous laugh.”
Mackie also designed Burnett’s costumes for a 2005 TV production of “Once Upon A Mattress” in which the star played Queen Aggravain.
“I dressed her as sort of a Medieval Joan Collins on ‘Dynasty.’ Too many clothes – and mean and horrible and glamorous, all at once,” Mackie said.
Mackie designed costumes for 11 seasons of Burnett’s show, which is where he met Cher. The designer reflected on his beginnings with the icon in a 2024 interview with W.
“Sonny and Cher were on the very first season. We were repairing a beaded dress, and she said, ‘Someday I’d like to have a beaded dress.’ And I said, ‘Well, you could.’ She said, ‘No, we can’t afford it right now.’ I said, ‘When you’re ready, I’m ready,'” he recalled.
The two went on to form a lifelong bond through fashion and costume designs that would go down in history. In the ’80s, Cher turned to Mackie for back-to-back creations for the Academy Awards.
In 1984, Cher made a splash in a nude-tone gown when she was nominated for best supporting actress for “Silkwood.” The halter dress featured a deep plunge neckline with all-over crystal beading in typical Mackie fashion.
In 1986, when Cher was snubbed by the Academy for her role in “Mask,” the singer presented the best supporting actor award and donned one of Mackie’s most famous designs: a black two-piece ensemble featuring a caged-style, jewel-encrusted bra top with a matching embellished low-rise skirt with slits on both sides. She topped off the look with a Vegas showgirl-inspired feathered mohawk headpiece that seemed to blend in with her jet-black hair. The singer famously called the design a “My ‘f— you’ moment” to the Academy.
“I said to her, ‘Do you think maybe it’s too much of an outfit? You’re pulling focus from the actual winner of this award’ “And she said, ‘Oh, no. I don’t know who it’ll be, but he’ll love it.,'” Mackie recalled Cher saying about the Best Supporting Actor winner.
Two years later, Cher got her big Oscar moment when she took home the award for Best Actress for her role as Loretta Castorini in “Moonstruck.” Turning to Mackie once again, Cher wowed in a sheer and beaded black gown with a form-fitting ruched skirt. She paired the glittering gown with a black fur stole and long dark earrings.
Mackie was nominated for 32 Emmys and won 9, including for his work with Burnett, Gaynor and Ross. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002. The designer was also nominated for three Academy Awards, and won one Tony Award for his work on “The Cher Show” in 2019.
He reportedly drew the first sketch for what would become the nude shimmering gown Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 when she famously sang “Happy Birthday” to former President John F. Kennedy. In 2022, the dress was in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum when Kim Kardashian brought it out of retirement and wore it to the Met Gala.
After the event, Mackie told Entertainment Weekly that he felt that her decision was a “big mistake,” saying that Monroe “was a goddess. A crazy goddess, but a goddess. She was just fabulous. Nobody photographs like that.” He added, “And it was done for her. It was designed for her. Nobody else should be seen in that dress.”
