The performers sparkle. Bob Mackie wears plaid. In Larry Bessel’s 1975 group photograph, the designer stands among Bette Midler, Elton John, Cher and Flip Wilson, each with a different way of commanding the frame. It is a lovely introduction to a career in which a recognizable costume could make the person inside it more distinct.
The decoration had a job to do
The Associated Press reported Mackie’s death in Palm Springs from pneumonia on September 14, 2026, citing his publicist. He was 87. W Magazine and British Vogue followed the news and his career. Nine Emmy Awards, a Tony and three Academy Award nominations reflect the range of work that connected him with performers including Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand.
The Wikipedia biography of Bob Mackie supplies a broad chronology. Across the collaborations, a practical question keeps returning: how can clothes help this particular performer reach an audience?
Read a costume at three scales: the silhouette from a distance, the placement of light-catching decoration, then the detail visible in a close-up. A television camera and a theater audience do not see the same amount at once. Mackie’s embroidery, crystal and strong lines can be considered through that practical distinction, with the performer’s character holding the views together.
That helps explain why an archival look can still have force in another setting. A strong silhouette and a clear relationship to the wearer remain legible when the stage becomes a red carpet or a photograph moves onto a small screen. The original occasion is part of its history, with another performer giving it a new context.
The sketch came before the spectacle
Mackie’s official biography traces work for Jean Louis and sketching for Edith Head. On paper, a line can establish the relationship between a body, a garment and the space around it before anyone cuts the fabric. Those drawings give the finished spectacle an earlier, quieter form to examine.
The famous 1962 Marilyn Monroe dress began with one of those drawings. Mackie was a young sketch artist working for Jean Louis when he conceived the sheer, beaded gown worn for Monroe's performance of "Happy Birthday" for President John F. Kennedy. The finished garment emerged from a collaborative costume workshop, with Mackie's sketch establishing its unforgettable line.
With Cher, illusion fabric, graphic beadwork, feathers and headdresses gave that line a highly recognizable presence. Coverage and exposure were arranged together. The surprise depended on placement, with the costume guiding attention across a silhouette that still belonged to one particular performer.
Camp worked because the construction was serious
Carol Burnett’s comic costumes needed another kind of precision. An exaggerated proportion had to read quickly enough to carry a joke. A reveal needed the right timing. A performer still had to move inside the construction. The humor came through the clothes because the technical work held the idea together.
The glamour used a similar discipline. Excess became convincing when its scale and placement were controlled. A large shape or a bright surface could make an entrance intelligible at once, leaving the performer free to deliver the next part. Craft could support a joke and a grand appearance with equal seriousness.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America gave Mackie its Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. The recognition placed a designer formed by television and entertainment inside fashion's institutional history. It also acknowledged that costume can shape mainstream style rather than merely reflect it.
The archive remains active
Mackie's influence is visible not only in tribute but in reuse. The AP notes recent appearances of his archival work on performers including Zendaya, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift. Each return changes the context. A design once attached to a variety show or concert can become a red-carpet reference, an album image, or a link between generations of performers.
Reuse puts a fresh demand on an archive. The garment has an earlier wearer and occasion, while the new appearance asks it to work for someone else. Its shape and construction give that transition something tangible to carry, beyond a general appeal to nostalgia.
Sparkle alone would not explain the differences between the people in the 1975 photograph. Mackie’s work made room for their different public characters. The shared authorship is visible without requiring the performers to become a matching set.
The drawings give the entrance an earlier form
The Art of Bob Mackie , by Frank Vlastnik and Laura Ross, brings the drawings and finished work into one volume. Simon & Schuster describes the 304-page 2021 hardcover as an authorized career showcase made with access to the archive and Mackie’s memories. Carol Burnett supplies the foreword and Cher the afterword, placing two collaborators around the visual record.
The sketches make it possible to look backward from an entrance to the decisions that shaped it. A line on paper becomes a material edge, a volume or a surface that catches stage light. Comic costumes and celebrated gowns can sit within the same account of proportion, character and performance.
The Art of Bob Mackie is one of my favorite fashion books because it gives the process as much interest as the finished spectacle. The sketches make the connection between an idea and a public image easier to follow. The matching Simon & Schuster hardcover, ISBN 978-1982152116, is The Art of Bob Mackie on Amazon .
An image of the working relationship
The featured photograph shows Bette Midler, Elton John, Cher, Bob Mackie, and Flip Wilson together in 1975. Mackie stands among the performers rather than apart from them, surrounded by clothes that demonstrate the range of his visual vocabulary. The image was made by Larry Bessel for the Los Angeles Times and is held by UCLA Library. It is published through Wikimedia Commons under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Look at the clothes beside Mackie’s plaid shirt. The glitter does not make the performers interchangeable: a hat, an exposed line or a tailored edge carries a different character on each person. The maker stands within that variety, close enough for Cher’s hand to rest on his shoulder.
