Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie, who made stars sparkle, dies at 87

By Zoe Sottile, Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) — The legendary fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie, who dressed divas from Cher to Diana Ross in glittering, eye-catching designs, has died at age 87, according to his social media accounts.

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

Over decades of designing for the A-list, Mackie’s name became synonymous with Hollywood glamour. Nicknamed the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones and the Guru of Glitter, Mackie’s designs — often amped up with jewels, crystals, feather and fringe — were the ultimate match for larger-than-life stars like Dolly Parton, Judy Garland and Tina Turner.

The designer is best known for his longtime collaboration with Cher, whom he dressed on television and on tour. The designer first made a splash when he dressed the star for the 1974 Met Gala in a barely-there, sheer illusion dress, her arms and legs swathed in white feathers.

“People were horrified,” he later recalled to Interview Magazine. “They thought, that’s not fashion, she’s just naked at the Metropolitan.”

Nude illusion looks — often ornamented with glitter, feathers, and other Mackie motifs — became a staple look for the designer. His penchant for drawing attention paid off: Cher’s Met Gala look was featured in Vogue, then in Time.

Cher spoke lovingly about the designer. “He is such an important person in my life,” the superstar said in 2024. “He helped me create a different me.”

Mackie said his career grew out of a lifelong obsession with the glitz and glamour of show business. “I was never all that interested in fashion, as much as I was in costume design,” he told Vogue. “All through high school, I was all about putting on plays, that sort of thing.”

Mackie became best-known for designs that blur the boundaries between fashion and costumes. The clothes became part of a client’s persona, one of the tools that helped transform an entertainer into an icon.

“I could create characters for [them] that weren’t always specified in the script,” Mackie said. “When you’re designing for performers, you have to think about what does the audience want to see them look like — especially if they’re playing big theaters or stadiums.”

Even in the early stages of his career, Mackie made waves. Working under his mentor Jean Louis, he sketched the original design for the bedazzled, body-clinging gown Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 for President John F. Kennedy‘s birthday celebration in New York.

Mackie’s flair for the ostentatious sometimes flirted with comedy, a sensibility he honed while serving as the costume designer for “The Carol Burnett Show.” He said he was careful to walk a fine line and avoid going “too far.”

“You want it to be more clever than that,” he told Interview, citing as an example the “curtain rod dress” in which he styled Burnett for a parody of “Gone with the Wind,” one of the show’s most famous sight gags.

Burnett estimated that Mackie created 17,000 costumes for her show’s 11-year run. “There are fashion designers, but they can’t do costumes,” she said. “And then there are costume designers that don’t do fashion. But Bob does it all. He’s the whole ball of wax.”

Sometimes the comedy was more overt. Mackie dressed Elton John, for instance, in an absurd Donald Duck costume for a 1980 concert in New York City’s Central Park.

“I was dancing across the stage, falling over myself, and I just couldn’t sing for laughing,” John recalled in “Who Is Mackie?,” a short film. “Because it looked ridiculous, but it looked fabulous.”

Mackie’s popularity continued into the modern day, with his archive coveted by a new generation of stars. Sabrina Carpenter and Zendaya have sported Mackie looks on the red carpet. Miley Cyrus wore an archival Mackie dress, covered in strings of crystals, to perform at the 2024 Grammys. The dress was classic Mackie: Designed for a performer and moving with Cyrus as she danced, without overpowering or upstaging her.

Mackie said he was happy to see younger stars excited about his work. Today, “the performers are younger and braver and they’ve watched a lot of the old stuff,” he told Interview. “That’s how all these young Disney girls, these famous girls who’ve been wearing some of my old clothes discover me.”

For his stage and screen work, Mackie won nine Emmys, induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and three Academy Award nominations. In 1999, he received a retrospective at the Museum at FIT. More recently, he won a Tony Award for the musical “The Cher Show” and a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Mackie was even tapped by Mattel to produce a line of outfits for Barbie dolls. He helped diversify the doll’s looks, crafting Barbies in the mold of some of his most famous designs and veering away from the homogenous blonde Barbies of the past. Mackie’s rendition was “more fantasy-oriented,” he said. “She could be anything we wanted her to be.”

Fern Mallis, former executive director of CFDA and founder of New York Fashion Week, credited him with many of the red carpet trends we see today.

“When he did fashion shows, they were so spectacular and theatrical,” she told CNN in 2019. “He invented the naked dresses with the strategically placed beads. Now everyone who walks the red carpet, or designs for the red carpet, owes him a debt of gratitude, whether they know it or not. He’s a treasure; he’s one of a kind.”

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