Bob Mackie, the designer who put Cher in a sheer, sequined “naked dress” at the 1974 Met Gala and spent six decades making Hollywood’s biggest names impossible to ignore, died Monday. He was 87
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today,” a post on the official Bob Mackie Instagram account said. “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.”
He reportedly died at a hospital of pneumonia.
For much of a 60-year career, Mackie was the go-to designer among Hollywood’s biggest names, dressing Cher, Diana Ross, Elton John, Madonna and many more in ornate, custom creations. The relationships became more than business.
“They just become part of my family,” he told WWD.
He described the work as an exercise in attention. “People say, ‘Oh, well, didn’t you have trouble with any of them?’ and I say, ‘Hardly any – I really had the best people working with me. They liked what I did, and I loved what they did. When you dress somebody, you’ve really got to know them inside and out, especially if they’re performers. You have to know what’s good for them and how to make them look the best. Also, having knowledge of their talents helps.'”
The start came early. In 1962, Mackie sketched Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress, a sheer blush lace-and-feather gown that Jean Louis eventually designed for the late starlet. Soon after, he began working on “The Judy Garland Show,” where he met and designed for Liza Minnelli, Lena Horne, and Diahann Carroll. By 1967, he had started on “The Carol Burnett Show,” where, according to a 2021 interview with WWD, he designed 60 to 70 costumes a week for 11 years.
He met Cher through that show. Born in Monterey Park, Calif., Mackie later moved to New York in 1982. The bond with Cher ran for years and stayed prolific, drawing the pair both praise and castigation, sometimes for the same outfit.
Photographs from that run show the range. Tina Turner appears onstage around 1979 in a flame dress by Mackie. Cher, Elton John and Diana Ross all turn up dressed in Mackie at the 1975 Grammy Awards. A decade later, Cher wore a custom sequined black and sheer outfit by the designer to the Met Gala exhibition of “Costumes of Royal India” in Ville de New York on Dec. 9, 1985.
The greatest hits are well documented. Mackie’s standout designs for Cher included a red-fringe getup she wore during her “Living Proof: The Farewell Tour,” along with the “naked dress” he crafted for her to wear to the 1974 Met Gala, completely sheer save for some sequins and feathers. Many argue that dress single-handedly sparked a new genre of red carpet dressing, inspiring the likes of Rihanna’s 2014 Adam Selman gown worn to the CFDA Awards and more.
Then came the knock-on effect at retail. “You couldn’t give away a halter dress until I started putting it on Cher,” he told WWD. “Then, that’s all department stores wanted.”
He also said that, contrary to popular belief, he sometimes tried to talk her down from her most eccentric sartorial decisions. “I’d try to discourage her, and say, ‘Are you sure you want to wear that? You’ll be pulling focus from whoever you give an award.’ But the next morning her picture would be everywhere and then for the next 30 years, too. She knew, and she loves to dress up, too.”
Film work ran alongside the television years, with credits for Diana Ross’ 1972 Billie Holiday biopic “Lady Sings the Blues” and the 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special.”
New generations kept arriving. Sabrina Carpenter wore a sequin-adorned “The Swamp Dress” from his 1986 spring collection to the 2025 MTV VMAs. Miley Cyrus wore a silver-beaded dress from his 2002 “To Broadway With Love” collection to the 2024 Grammys, where she accepted her first two career Grammy Awards. Taylor Swift wore one of his “Showgirl” costumes.
In 2018, Mackie designed more than 600 costumes for “The Cher Show,” which opened that year on Broadway, and he took home his first Tony Award for the production in 2019. “Creating and dressing a character for a play, and making the audience understand who that is they’re watching and where they came from just by the way they look, is so much fun,” he said.
He resettled to Palm Springs, Calif., during the pandemic. In 2021, Simon & Schuster released “The Art of Bob Mackie,” a book by Frank Vlastnik and Laura Ross that chronicled the designer’s life and talent. A few years later, director Matthew Miele introduced a documentary, “Bob Mackie: The Naked Illusion,” which charted his rise as one of fashion’s defining costumiers.
Said Mackie ahead of the documentary’s release: “I really like what I do and I enjoy doing it. It never occurred to me not to.”
Images reproduites avec l'aimable autorisation de Bob Mackie IG
