Bob Mackie

Bob Mackie was an American costume designer noted for his extravagant and inventive style, characterized by meticulously hand-beaded garments and abundant applications of feathers and rhinestones. His costuming received wide notice through 1960s and ’70s television variety series, including The Carol Burnett Show and The Sonny and Cher Show. Mackie worked closely with prominent pop stars and public figures, including Cher, Elton John, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, and RuPaul, crafting distinctive looks that would come to shape their onstage personas.

Early life

Robert Gordon Mackie was born in 1939 to Charles and Mildred Mackie; he also had an older half-sister, Patricia. His father served in the Canadian military during the early years of Bob Mackie’s life and, after his return from deployment in World War II, worked for Bank of America. His parents divorced when he was six years old, at which time he was sent to live with his grandmother. Mackie and his sister often went to the movies with their mother on the weekend.

It was during those Saturday movie trips that flamboyantly costumed actresses, including Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, and the intricacies of film production captured Mackie’s imagination. When he saw An American in Paris (1951), he was so enamored of Irene Sharaff’s costumes that he decided he wanted to be a designer. He drew and designed stage sets as a child and later assisted with theatrical productions as a student at Rosemead High School.

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He attended Pasadena City College before transferring to the Chouinard Art Institute (which has since been incorporated into the California Institute of the Arts), Los Angeles, on a scholarship. While attending Chouinard he designed a dress for actress Jayne Mansfield, who was a guest of honor at the school’s ball. Eager to find work in Hollywood, he left the school after a year. He married singer and showgirl Lulu Porter in 1960; the couple divorced in 1963 but remained close. Their son, Robert (“Robin”) Mackie, Jr., died in 1993 of complications from AIDS. They have a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters.

Career: Marilyn, Carol, Cher, Elton, Tina, and more

Mackie ultimately found a job at Paramount Studios designing men’s costumes for the film Love Is a Ball. This gig was followed by a stint working under designer Jean Louis on the Marilyn Monroe movie Something’s Got to Give, a production that folded after Monroe’s 1962 death. During this period Mackie sketched the dress worn by Monroe when she famously sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy during a 1962 celebration at Madison Square Garden.

Mackie later returned to Paramount to work for the legendary Edith Head, who was then the most revered costume designer in Hollywood. In Head’s studio Mackie developed a reputation for over-the-top designs. As he recalled:

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 1963 Mackie was hired to assist Iranian costume designer Ray Aghayan on The Judy Garland Show. They became long-term professional and romantic partners, living together until Aghayan’s death in 2011.

Mackie and Aghayan’s costumes for the television movie Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966) earned them the first Emmy Award given for costume design. Drawn to Mackie’s work for Alice Through the Looking Glass, Carol Burnett brought him on as a costume designer for her weekly variety show, The Carol Burnett Show. Mackie went on to sketch an estimated 17,000 costumes for the show across 11 years, producing looks not only for Burnett and her guest stars but also for the entire cast. One of his most storied costumes, the “curtain dress” worn by Burnett during a Gone With the Wind parody skit, is now housed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

He first met Cher, another longtime client, when she appeared as a guest star on the Burnett show. His work on Cher’s own variety show, The Sonny and Cher Show, drew further attention to his designs, which were often marked by sequins, beads, feathers, and revealing cuts of fabric. Musician and composer Elton John told Mackie he wanted “a costume like Cher wears.” Mackie went on to design some of John’s most iconic concert couture, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Donald Duck costumes and a bedazzled Los Angeles Dodgers uniform. About this time Mackie also developed a long-term working relationship with the singer Tina Turner.

Befitting his reputation for excess, Mackie designed lavish outfits for Jubilee!, the long-running (1981–2016) Las Vegas revue, in collaboration with Pete Menefee. The designers reportedly caused a worldwide shortage of Swarovski crystals while producing the sparkling showgirl attire. (Mackie induced a second rhinestone shortage through his work on the Broadway musical The Cher Show, which opened in 2018).

In his later years Mackie produced designs for Beyoncé, RuPaul, Zendaya, Pink, and Miley Cyrus. Mackie’s elaborate red-carpet and Las Vegas revue styling has seen a resurgence as Gen Z and Millennial stars have embraced his opulence. One of his showgirl costumes for Jubilee! was worn by Taylor Swift in photographs for her The Life of a Showgirl album (2025). (Mackie said he was unaware that Swift had chosen his costume.)

Awards and honors

Mackie won nine Emmy Awards and one Tony Award and was nominated for an Academy Award three times. He also received multiple awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, including one for “fashion exuberance” and another for lifetime achievement, as well as a RuPaul’s Drag Race “Giving Us Life-Time Achievement Award.”