as her plus-one. “Everybody was delighted and thrilled,”
he says. “I remember another designer saying, ‘I can see
the whole museum through her crotch.’ It was crazy!”
Almost five decades later the musical interpretation of
Cher’s life (with a Bob Mackie character in a starring
role) is due to open in London. Mackie won a Tony award
for his work on the Broadway version.
He needs no convincing of his friend’s mass appeal.
“She has always stood for something different. When
we started, the big stars were the boopsie blondes —
they were cute but we were tired of them. Cher became
a whole other thing. The long hair, the bigger nose,
the tan. Her look is still so distinctive. There is no one
like her.”
Mackie cites a one-off show with Cher and Bette
Midler as a career highlight. “Those
two are amazing together. Cher is not
a dirty talker but give her half a
chance. We laughed a lot!” So he and
Cher always agree on fashion? “For
some reason she has opinions now,”
Mackie says, smiling. “She didn’t have
opinions then. I could put her in
anything. I’d dress her up in a period
costume or as Queen Elizabeth.”
Mackie’s aptitude for creating char-
acters through costume is his genius.
“It never occurred to me that making
people laugh wasn’t part of the job,”he says. Sending up the leading ladies of Hollywood
was a breeze for Mackie because he had been studying
them since he was a baby. On trips to the cinema with
his mother and sister, Mackie (“the oddest of children”,
he says) was mesmerised by Carmen Miranda and tap
dancers such as Eleanor Powell. On the streetcar ride
home Mackie would quiz his mother about the clothes
he had seen on the big screen. “Betty Grable was a
favourite of mine,” he says. “I was fascinated by her
turquoise and pink outfits and her legs, of course,
because they were ensured for a million dollars.”
A handful of years later he would find himself at the
heart of the world he had idolised as a child and
approached his work with the same mindset. At 21,
having completed a scholarship at art school, he
designed a costume for Marilyn
Monroe. “I wasn’t allowed anywhere
near her,’’ Mackie says. “I was the boy
in the backroom doing the drawings.”
A job designing costumes for Para-
mount led to an apprenticeship with
the great Hollywood costume designer
Edith Head and a chance meeting with
Judy Garland, with whom he went on to
work extensively. “My office was on the
way to the ladies’ room. On my first day
Judy came in lost and bursting,” he says.
As Mackie’s leading ladies grew
in popularity, his remit expanded.‘Elton asked
if I’d ever do
something for
him. I said,
“What like?” He
said, “Well, you
know, like you
do for Cher” ’
Cher, Elton
John and
Diana Ross
all in Mackie
designs at
the 1975
GrammysElton John
on stage in
his Mackie-
designed
duck suitDolly Parton often
wore this Bob Mackie
butterfly dress on stage28 • The Sunday Times Style