“A woman who wears my clothes is not afraid to be noticed” - Bob Mackie
Bob Mackie is one of the most prolific costume and fashion designers of all time. Is that my opinion? Yes. Is it also probably true? Also yes.
He has designed outfits for a laundry list of iconic figures; Cher, Marlene Dietrich, Tina Turner, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Madonna, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston, Judy Garland; the list really could go on. He has received nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award and three Oscar nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Robert Mackie was born in 1939 to Charles and Mildred Mackie. His childhood was primarily spent with his half-sister and maternal grandparents, as his parents went through a divorce when he was only six years old. As a child, Mackie and his sister spent every Saturday going to the movies with their mother, watching costumed actresses grace the silver screen. It was a viewing of An American in Paris that led to Mackie’s interest in becoming a costume designer, being inspired by the ballet scene and costumes of Irene Sharaff. As he grew up, Mackie assisted with various theatrical productions at Rosemead High School in California, Pasadena City College and Chouinard Art Institute. While studying at Chouinard, Mackie designed a gown for Jayne Mansfield, who was a guest of honour at the school’s ball. However, Mackie left after a year to pursue a career in Hollywood.
“Edith Head had a lot of people that had been with her for a long time—two or three sketch artists—a lot of designers. They were sort of middle-aged ladies that loved to do little secretary suits and housewives, but when it came to doing anything slightly flamboyant, or if it was a musical, or a showgirl or something, they absolutely weren’t comfortable with it. Edith saw that in me, so every time there was something crazy it would come right straight to me to do.”
In the early 1960s, Mackie was working for Paramount Studios as a sketch artist for the costume department. From there, he began working with Edith Head and Jean Louis, both prolific costume designers at the time. As one of his first assignments, Mackie sketched a nude gown encrusted with rhinestones for Louis. Mackie told PEOPLE magazine “Louis wouldn’t tell me what it was for. He just said, ‘It’s for Marilyn.’ And I went, ‘Oh, okay,’ but he wouldn’t tell me what the deal was”. He turned in the sketch and moved on with his career. Turns out, Monroe wore this gown to a birthday party at Madison Square Garden in 1962 for a certain American President. Yes, that one - the iconic ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ gown.
Mackie designed for the 1966 television movie Alice Through the Looking Glass, which earned him and his partner, Ray Aghayan, their first Emmy Award. From there, Carol Burnett brought him on as costume designer for her weekly variety show - The Carol Burnett Show. Across its 11 year run, Mackie designed around 17,000 looks for the show, with one dress now housed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. It was the ‘curtain dress’ worn by Burnett on a parody skit based off Gone With the Wind.
In 1966, American actress & singer Mitzi Gaynor hired Mackie to design the looks for her new Las Vegas stage show. From there, Mackie designed for Gaynor for the next 50 years, earning Mackie two Emmy Awards for his work in two of Gaynor’s TV specials.
In 1967, Cher and Mackie met for the first time on the set of the Carol Burnett show, as Mackie was the costume designer for its entire 11 year run. As Mackie and Cher’s friendship and professional relationship grew, Mackie designed the costumes for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, continuing on to design looks for Cher’s numerous tours and TV appearances, even to this day. This creative collaboration also led to Mackie designing tour looks for Elton John, who wanted ‘a costume like Cher wears’. This led to some iconic outfits, including the fully rhinestoned Los Angeles Dodgers uniform (you know the one).
In 1969, Mackie designed for Diana Ross & the Supremes for a TV special, with Mackie continuing to design for Ross into the 2010s.
One of the longest running revues in Las Vegas was Jubilee!, running from 1981 to 2016, with Mackie as the costume designer. Him and his team reportedly caused a Swarovski crystal shortage in order to produce the showgirl attire. Another rhinestone shortage was caused by Mackie around 2018 as he designed for the Broadway musical The Cher Show.
By 1982, Mackie launched his eponymous ready-to-wear brand. However, it’s hard to translate one of a kind showgirl-inspired pieces to ready-to-wear designs, and the brand closed ten years later. The thing is, Mackie’s work is primarily meant to seen once, a frivolous costume thats meant to capture attention and not be part of a general wardrobe and be beholden to the retail market. That’s what makes Bob Mackie so special, his work isn’t really something you can walk into a store and buy. It’s meant for the stage lights, for the camera lens, to be seen in all its glory from the back of a theatre.
1990 led to the start of something special; Mackie’s designs, on a much smaller scale, literally. Mattel approached Mackie to design his first Barbie. His first doll, the limited edition ‘Gold Barbie’ featured a blonde high ponytail, cropped gold top with a sequinned skirt and feather boa.
“All American girls had blonde hair at that point in time, once we started doing all different kinds of hair colour and lengths, it was a way of making Barbie anybody and looking any way she wanted to look.”
During the relationship between Mackie and Mattel, Mackie became the first designer to be fully integrated into the design process. He designed not only the outfits, but the doll itself. Mackie’s Neptune Fantasy doll, released in 1992, launched with a closed-mouth version of the ‘superstar sculpt’, which eventually became known as the ‘Mackie sculpt’. He said, “I had no desire to make her look like the bookkeeper or the airline stewardess. This is more fantasy-oriented.”
Mackie also insisted on having different ethnicities and heritage represented within Barbie. He created the International Beauty Collection, a set of 4 dolls representing 4 different continents across the world; the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Arctic. These were, in my opinion, a work of art, and has become Bob Mackie’s favourite Barbie collection.
Now at the age of 87, Bob Mackie has had an illustrious career. His work is present through fleeting moments; TV specials, concerts, red carpets, living on through photographs and old recordings. Mackie has always committed himself to the art of the costume, to commit to the fantasy and the aesthetic without considering marketability and retail profit. On the other hand, its not just over-the-top for the sake of being over-the-top. There’s a purpose to everything, not just camp to the point of frivolity. That’s what makes Bob Mackie so special, the fine balance between costume and fashion.
“I’m very serious about this. It’s not just flamboyant, crazy stuff. It’s all very worked out.”