From Cher to Elton John, Bob Mackie Was Fashion's First Image Architect

The worlds of fashion, music, entertainment, and pop culture are mourning the loss of fashion designer and Academy Award-nominated costumer Bob Mackie, who passed away Monday morning at the age of 87. Robert “Bob” Gordon Mackie was born in the spring of 1939, thrust into a world on the cusp of disaster. It makes sense, then, that he proceeded to cover it with crystals, glitter, and rows of rhinestones. He’d come to be known as the “Sultan of Sequins,” a maestro of camp and glamor.Elton John with designer Bob Mackie, 1975.Mirrorpix/Getty ImagesChances are you’ve seen a Bob Mackie original even if you didn’t know it. His designs are so deeply embedded in the pop culture lexicon that, at a certain point, his work and the culture became indistinguishable. There’s The Carol Burnett Show, whose campy, comedic brilliance was bolstered by Mackie’s exuberant costuming. (He even made an appearance in the final season of Hacks helping Jean Smart’s character track down an iconic jumpsuit he designed for Burnett.) There’s Elton John’s tailored and sequined baseball ensemble, worn throughout a sold-out run of shows at Dodgers Stadium in October 1975. And, of course, there’s Cher’s 1986 Oscars look: mohawk headdress, jewel-encrusted bralette, low-rise, side-slit skirt. Mackie occupied the space where costume and fashion met. He understood, too, that for a certain kind of star, there was little distinction.Carol Burnett and Bob Mackie in Beverly Hills, 1989.Vinnie Zuffante/Getty ImagesThey often say the mark of a true trailblazer is to be cited, referenced, sampled, and duplicated ad infinitum. That much is true of Mackie’s work. Consider the way he continues to inspire generations of pop culture blondes: it was Mackie who, in 1962, sketched Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress, a sheer, figure-hugging rhinestone number whose lore and controversy only accrues. More than 20 years later, Madonna called Mackie to replicate it for the 63rd Academy Awards; repeating the cycle, Sabrina Carpenter sourced the exact piece for the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.He was meant for a life in the “pictures,” as they used to say in a Transatlantic drawl. Mackie came of age at a time when illustrators were pivotal players in the fashion ecosystem. He got his start as a sketch artist, working alongside costume designer Jean Louis at 20th Century-Fox and sketching designs for Monroe’s Something’s Got to Give. Later, he even worked under the revolutionary Academy Award-winning designer Edith Head at Paramount Pictures, helping to dress Natalie Wood for A New Kind of Love and Love with the Proper Stranger.Over his 60-year career, Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and was nominated for three Best Costume Design Oscars: for Lady Sings the Blues, starring his muse Diana Ross; Funny Lady, with Barbra Streisand; and 1981’s Pennies from Heaven, featuring Bernadette Peters.Diana Ross performs in Paris, 1972.Alain Dejean/Getty ImagesBut Mackie’s work has so transcended Hollywood that every drag queen has indirectly paid homage—just watch any given episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race or head to your local gay bar on a Friday night. Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing, Whitney Houston, and the recently deceased Dolly Parton—the guru of glitter dressed them all.There was an understanding between Mackie and his muses. He didn’t merely dress them in designs that shimmered; he seemed, more potently, to embellish their inner selves, highlight their features, imbue them with confidence. The clothes could be extravagant, but the relationships between designer and muse were intimate. When Tina Turner left Ike in 1976, she turned to Mackie to craft the wardrobe for her first solo shows, an expression of freedom, strength, and resilience. That Flame Dress Turner wore so effortlessly in the late 1970s? It didn’t create her power, but rather set it ablaze.Before film studios and record executives ever fully harnessed fashion as a tool for promotion—before Law Roach and Zendaya, or Andrew Mukamal and Margot Robbie—Mackie was laying the groundwork. I’d even wager that he was the first image architect, helping several icons craft their signature aesthetics. Long before celebrity styling became an industry unto itself, Mackie knew that clothing could do more than dress a star. It could establish the terms by which she'd be seen, too.Cher at the Oscars wearing an outfit by Bob Mackie, 1986.Frank Trapper/Getty ImagesIn particular, his decades-long creative partnership with Cher, which is the stuff of legend. Her variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, premiered on August 1st, 1971, with Mackie as its primary costume designer. In it, Cher cycled through several different outfits in a single hour, coordinating frocks with guests and suggestively revealing her now-definitive “naked” dresses, which Mackie pioneered using illusion netting and flesh-toned mesh.In all of this, Mackie’s love for his women shone through. He understood that the most memorable fashions don’t impose an identity so much as reveal one. And that’s why his work will live forever: on the screen and stage, on carpets magic and red, and in the hearts of anyone who’s ever worshiped a true diva.