You could very narrowly define Bob Mackie’s career by his work on the Carol Burnett Show (including the famous Gone with the Wind parody), but he dressed stars for decades and decades. What I did not know was
When Marilyn Monroe delivered a breathy, seductive take on “Happy Birthday” at a fundraiser for President John F. Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee, she did it in a sheer, beaded gown that Mackie dreamed up in a sketch.
That’s the dress that a subsequent purchaser, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, loaned to Kim Kardashian to wear on the red carpet at the 2022 Met Gala. (Unsurprisingly, the fragile historic garment was somewhat damaged.)
Bob Mackie was such an icon. He was a costumer who drove fashion trends, and broadened the definition of beauty as it was applied to female bodies. He worked comfortably and even preferentially with powerful, independent women.
It’s hard for today’s kids to understand what it meant that he worked with Tina Turner. Most designers of the time were focused on female stars who fit a certain fair, feminine, and petite profile. They chose their clients like they were hiring a model, and it limited the careers of female performers. Mackie celebrated Tina’s beauty, her gorgeous complexion and athletic body and wrapped them in glamour. He dared anybody to deny her star quality.
He did the same for Cher who was too tall, too straight, too flat for the aesthetic of the times. Mackie celebrated diversity and said eff the beauty standards, these women are gorgeous!!