Bob Mackie appears at the 27th Costume Designers Guild Awards in Los Angeles in 2025.Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press
Bob Mackie, the fashion designer whose visually provocative Hollywood style defined glamour for the 1970s – including putting Carol Burnett in some of her kookiest getups and Cher in her raciest ones – died Monday. He was 87.
“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,” a read statement on his social media accounts. “His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world.”
Dubbed the “Designer to the Stars,” Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award and was nominated for three Oscars, including one for Barbra Streisand’s Funny Lady, in which she wore a sheer batwing gown. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Hall of Fame in 2002.
He designed gowns for Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone, Diana Ross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and concert costumes for Pink. When Marilyn Monroe delivered a breathy, seductive take on Happy Birthday at a fundraiser for President John F. Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee, she did it in a sheer, beaded gown that Mackie dreamed up in a sketch.
Mackie’s style influences Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift today
His influence can be seen in the styles of Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid. His archival pieces are worn today by the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Miley Cyrus and Zendaya, the latter who wore a Mackie gown to honour Cher at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. When Taylor Swift wanted to look like a showgirl on the cover of her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl, she turned to some Mackie originals.
Sequins and embellishment were natural tools for Mackie – other nicknames were the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones and the Guru of Glitter – but he had a simple motto: “You don’t try to change anybody, you just try to make them look better than ever,” he told The Associated Press in 2018.
On Broadway, Mackie dressed the casts of On the Town in 1971 and Moon Over Buffalo in 1995. He also created costumes for Burnett in the revue Putting It Together, Debbie Reynolds in Debbie in 1976, Liza Minnelli in Minnelli on Minnelli in 1999 and, most recently, the cast of The Cher Show, winning his Tony Award.