One-woman shows were a challenge. “You’ve got to keep
the audience guessing. They have to be surprised,” he
says. He became a master at tour wardrobes, creating
stage outfits for all the greats including Diana Ross and
Tina Turner.
“Diana was one of those little girls who understood
glamour. The Supremes were all talented but Diana was
something else. Your eyes went right to her. I loved
working with her.” Mackie remains firm friends with
Turner. “I adore her. These women are happiest on stage.
Tina still looks so incredible.”
He was never interested in menswear — although
Elton John was the exception. He created several outfits
for the Rocket Man singer, among them a male “show-
girl”and a giant sequin-trimmed Donald Duck. The
partnership, a source of inspiration for Alessandro
Michele of Gucci, who created a collection inspired by
their costumes, is now the stuff of fashion legend.
“When I met Elton he liked to get dressed up but he
hadn’t hit his stride on what was fun. He asked if I’d
ever do something for him. I asked, ‘What like?’ He said,
‘Well, you know, just like you do for Cher!’ We had the
best time. He loved the Donald Duck stuff. He was
always laughing when he came on stage because the tail
was sticking out.”
Tail feathers in mind, it’s easy to see why Mackie is
regularly introduced as the “patron saint of drag
queens”. He certainly has a superfan in RuPaul, who
invited him to be a guest judge on the first series ofDrag Race in 2009. “RuPaul knew exactly who I was
from the second he was born. He knew everything I’d
designed for Diana, for Cher, for Tina. He can describe
every inch of those clothes in detail,” Mackie says.
In June 2019 the designer received a lifetime achieve-
ment award from the Council of Fashion Designers
of America (his second from the organisation, as he
picked up a gong for “fashion exuberance” in 2001).
Speaking to American Vogue at the time, Tom Ford
noted: “[Mackie’s] famous quote that his clothes are
‘for the woman who is not afraid to be noticed’ is one of
my mantras.”
There’s no doubt that Mackie paved the way for the
red carpet showmanship we are used to today —
witness Lady Gaga’s 2019 Met Gala arrival-cum-perfor-
mance-art-piece, which lasted 15 minutes and involved
four outfit changes as a starter for ten.
And the dresses themselves are also a source of inspi-
ration. For the Met Ball in 2015, Kim Kardashian wore a
Roberto Cavalli gown inspired by that iconic Bob Mackie
look Cher wore to the event 40 years before. “For a while
no one was copying me or knocking off my work,”
Mackie says. “Recently I have seen more and more of it.
To me it’s tired old stuff but for them it really isn’t.
I forget how damned old I am. What is boring to me now
is someone else’s discovery.” ■ @karendacreThe Art of Bob Mackie is published by
Getty Images, Shutterstock Simon & Schuster at £35
From top Anya
Taylor-Joy and Sarah
Snook wearing
vintage MackieMackie
designed this
dress for a
Dynasty-era
Joan Collins
cover shootRuPaul in
Mackie at
the 1995 VH1
Fashion and
Music awardsThe Sunday Times Style • 29