The Japan Times - Designer Bob Mackie dies at 87 after career spanning television, stage and fashion

Bob Mackie, the costume and fashion designer known for his work with Cher, Carol Burnett and other entertainers, died on September 14 at the age of 87, a statement on his social media accounts announced.

The statement said Mackie had fulfilled his ambition to work in fashion and costume design throughout his life. His career extended across television, film, Broadway, ready-to-wear clothing and collectible dolls.

Mackie won nine Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and received three Oscar nominations. One nomination recognised his work on Barbra Streisand’s Funny Lady, which included a sheer batwing gown. He entered the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 2002.

His clients included Madonna, Streisand, Sharon Stone, Diana Ross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He also designed concert outfits for Pink. A sketch by Mackie supplied the concept for the sheer beaded gown Marilyn Monroe wore when singing Happy Birthday at a fundraiser for President John F. Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee.

Mackie’s use of sequins, rhinestones and glitter became associated with his approach to Hollywood glamour. His nicknames included Designer to the Stars, Sultan of Sequins, Rajah of Rhinestones and Guru of Glitter. He told The Associated Press in 2018 that his aim was to enhance a performer’s appearance without trying to change the person.

Later performers continued to wear pieces from his archive. Anya Taylor-Joy, Miley Cyrus and Zendaya were among them, with Zendaya choosing a Mackie gown for Cher’s 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Taylor Swift used Mackie originals for the cover of her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl. The source report also identified his influence in styles worn by Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.

A Southern California native, Mackie became interested in film glamour through Technicolor musicals as a child. He sketched imagined costumes for his mother and sister and worked on costume and set design for high-school productions.

He studied advertising and illustration at Pasadena City College before studying costume design at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. As a young designer, he worked for Edith Head and subsequently joined The Carol Burnett Show.

Mackie and Burnett developed a close friendship. Their collaborations included costumes for her characters Nora Desmond and Eunice, as well as Starlet O’Hara, her parody of Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind.

The Starlet costume featured green curtains worn with their rods still attached. It is now held by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Mackie said in a 1999 AP interview that he enjoyed comic design and the changing demands of creating different characters from week to week.

Cher first worked with him after appearing as a guest on Burnett’s programme. Mackie later designed for The Sonny and Cher Show and said her Laverne character, dressed in a leopard-print jumpsuit and dangling earrings, was among his favourites.

Their partnership subsequently produced the beaded and midriff-baring outfits Cher wore at film events and Academy Awards ceremonies. At the 1974 Met Gala, Mackie accompanied her in a sheer beaded dress with white feathered sleeves and skirt; the outfit later appeared on Time’s cover.

He also created Cher’s 1986 beaded spiderweb ensemble and accompanying Mohawk, and the gown she wore when winning the best actress Oscar in 1988. In 1999, he described these outfits as costumes for a character, intended to entertain as well as clothe the performer.

On Broadway, Mackie designed for On the Town in 1971 and Moon Over Buffalo in 1995. His stage work included Burnett in Putting It Together, Debbie Reynolds in Debbie in 1976 and Liza Minnelli in Minnelli on Minnelli in 1999.

He later designed the cast’s costumes for The Cher Show, earning his Tony Award. The work continued the long professional association with the singer whose stage and public appearances had become closely linked to his designs.

Mackie entered ready-to-wear fashion in 1982, with a line that eventually appeared at New York Fashion Week. He was also an early QVC partner and created dozens of Barbie dolls for Mattel, varying their faces, body types and themes.

He was credited as the first designer to create a complete doll. One design, Lady Dracula Cher, featured small fangs and a coffin-shaped box. Mackie said his dolls were intended to portray imaginative characters rather than ordinary roles.

Although his earlier sheer dresses influenced later styles, he expressed dissatisfaction with some contemporary versions. In a 2024 Hollywood Reporter interview, he criticised repeated revealing looks at awards events and said they had become monotonous. He had similarly told Vogue in 2017 that fashion offered too few surprises.

His honours included a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion debuted in 2024. That year, a dress Cher wore in 1975 sold at auction for $101,600, 25 times its original estimate.

Mackie married showgirl Lulu Porter in 1960; the marriage ended in 1963. Their son, makeup artist Robert Gordon Mackie Jr., died from AIDS at 35. Mackie’s longtime partner, costume designer Ray Aghayan, died in 2011.

Cher wore two Mackie outfits at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards when she was 71. His work continued to reflect the emphasis he had described throughout his career: creating visual fantasy rather than making practicality the central design consideration.

Mackie’s television and stage partnerships remained central to accounts of his career.

T.Shimizu--JT