Bob Mackie, the costume designer whose sequined, feathered creations defined the look of Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross and generations of television and stage performers, died Monday in Palm Springs, California. He was 87.
A representative confirmed Mackie died of pneumonia, with the news announced on his Instagram page. Tributes followed quickly from decades of collaborators. Carol Burnett, for whom Mackie designed roughly 17,000 costumes across the eleven-year run of The Carol Burnett Show, said in a statement carried by multiple outlets: "Sadness doesn't come close to how I feel. I loved him very much."
My dear, Bob has gone up to heaven. Knowing him, he's bringing Sequins, Beads, and his sketch pad.
Cher
Six Decades in Sequins
Born in 1939 in Monterey Park, California, Mackie studied at the Chouinard Art Institute before sketching for Hollywood costumer Edith Head, whose credits he later expanded on across film, television and the stage. He designed Marilyn Monroe's clinging gown for her 1962 birthday tribute to President John F. Kennedy years before establishing his own name, and his work on The Carol Burnett Show beginning in 1967 became the foundation of a partnership with Cher that produced some of the most recognizable red-carpet and stage looks of the late 20th century.
Mackie went on to design for Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Elton John, Whitney Houston and Liza Minnelli, among many others, and in 1990 began a long-running collaboration with Mattel designing Barbie dolls that helped push the toy line toward more fashion-forward, diverse designs. His costumes for Cher's Las Vegas and touring shows, and later for the Broadway musical The Cher Show, extended a collaboration that spanned more than five decades.
He was nominated for an Emmy 32 times and won nine, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002, and received three Academy Award nominations for best costume design, for "Lady Sings the Blues," "Funny Lady" and "Pennies From Heaven." He won a Tony Award in 2019 for "The Cher Show."
Known within the industry as the "Sultan of Sequins," Mackie is remembered less for chasing fashion trends than for building spectacle: costumes engineered to move, catch light and hold a stage, on performers he dressed for the better part of a lifetime.
