Legendary Fashion Designer Bob Mackie Has Died

by Christopher Turner

The legendary designer behind some of the most unforgettable looks worn by Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and generations of larger-than-life entertainers has died at 87.

Legendary fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie, known for creating flamboyant, show-stopping looks for divas including Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and countless others over a career spanning more than six decades, has died. He was 87 years old.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today,” a statement shared on his Instagram account read. “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. His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world.”

Earlier this year, 29Secrets sat down with Mackie for an extensive interview looking back at six decades of sequins, showgirls, spectacle and BDE (Big Diva Energy), from dressing some of the biggest entertainers of the 20th century to creating clothes that were never intended to quietly disappear into the background. Click here to read that exclusive interview.

Over the course of his remarkable career, Mackie earned three Academy Award nominations, more than 30 Emmy nominations and nine Emmy wins. In 2002, he became the first costume designer inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, recognition of a career that helped fundamentally shape the way glamour looked on television.

Mackie had an extraordinary ability to understand not only clothes, but the personalities wearing them. Two of his three Oscar nominations came for films built around formidable stars: Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, and Funny Lady, starring Barbra Streisand. He was also nominated for Pennies from Heaven, designed costumes for John Travolta in Staying Alive and even contributed to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

His career began behind the scenes, doing drawings for Golden Age costume designer Jean Louis before working as an assistant to legendary Hollywood designer Edith Head. He went on to create costumes for The Judy Garland Show and The Carol Burnett Show, where one of his funniest creations became one of television’s most enduring fashion moments: the green velvet “curtain dress” worn by Burnett in the 1976 Gone with the Wind parody “Went with the Wind!” The gown, complete with the curtain rod still stretched across Burnett’s shoulders, became so iconic that Mackie later acknowledged it would forever be associated with his career.

But it was his decades-long creative partnership with Cher that arguably produced the purest expression of the Bob Mackie aesthetic: unapologetically glamorous, revealing, theatrical and impossible to ignore. He created countless looks for the singer throughout The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Cher and The Sonny and Cher Show, transforming television costumes into fashion moments in their own right.

Among their most famous collaborations was the elaborate black, crystal-covered, midriff-baring ensemble topped with an enormous feathered Mohawk-style headdress that Cher wore to the 1986 Academy Awards. The look was deliberately outrageous, arriving after the Academy had failed to nominate Cher for her performance in Mask, and became one of the most recognizable red-carpet outfits in Oscar history.

Cher was hardly Mackie’s only diva. His client list reads like a history of modern show business, with Mackie creating unforgettable looks for Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Joan Rivers, Mitzi Gaynor and Barbara Eden. He dressed men too, including Elton John, the Jackson 5 and Robert Goulet, particularly when the assignment called for something extravagant enough to command an arena.

Born in Monterey Park, California, and raised in Southern California, Mackie collaborated on many projects with his longtime life partner, costume designer Ray Aghayan, who died in 2011. Mackie also endured the loss of his son, Robin, who died of AIDS-related causes in 1994.

His creative world eventually expanded far beyond film, television and the stage. Mackie launched fashion collections, built a long-running partnership with QVC and lent his unmistakable aesthetic to everything from luggage and home furnishings to elaborate collectible Barbie dolls. Yet whether he was dressing a Hollywood legend, a television comedian or a plastic fashion icon, the philosophy remained remarkably consistent: more glamour was almost always better.

Mackie once described himself not as a fashion designer but as a “costume designer,” a distinction that made perfect sense when looking at the clothes he created. His designs were never simply about what someone was wearing. They were about entrance, transformation and spectacle, helping some of the world’s biggest stars become even larger than life.

For more than six decades, Bob Mackie understood something fundamental about glamour: sometimes the dress should absolutely enter the room before you do.

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