![\"Cher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/765c57232ce3aedc352ab6bf22dc5cb9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHollywood designer Bob Mackie, known for making stars such as Cher and Elton John sparkle, has died at 87.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a Fashion and Costume Designer, which is all he ever wanted to do,” said a statement on his social media accounts.<\/p>\n
Mackie died in Palm Springs, California, from pneumonia, his publicist said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cher wears a Bob Mackie creation while presenting actor Don Ameche with an Oscar in 1986. (AP: Lennox McLendon, File)<\/p>\n
Dubbed the Designer to the Stars, Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award and was nominated for three Oscars, including one for Barbra Streisand’s Funny Lady, in which she wore a sheer bat-wing gown.<\/p>\n
He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 2002.<\/p>\n
He designed gowns for Madonna, Streisand, Sharon Stone, Diana Ross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and concert costumes for Pink.<\/p>\n
Mackie sketched the sheer, beaded gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang Happy Birthday at a fundraiser for president John F Kennedy and the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n
More recently, Taylor Swift turned to some Mackie originals for the cover of her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl.<\/p>\n
Sequins, rhinestones and glitter<\/p>\n
Some of Mackie’s most memorable looks were from his collaboration with Cher.<\/p>\n
Mackie attended the 1974 Met Gala with Cher on his arm, dressed in what is perhaps one of the most famous so-called naked dresses of all time: a sheer beaded gown with white feathered sleeves and a white feathered skirt.<\/p>\n
She and the dress ended up on the cover of Time magazine.<\/p>\n
![\"Cher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/b97c19c7fa28d34a521bff9bf9fa08cd.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Cher, wearing a black sequined Bob Mackie gown, poses with her Oscar in 1988. (AP: Lennox McLendon, File)<\/p>\n
Looks such as the 1986 beaded spider web \u2014 worn with a complementary Mohawk \u2014 and the barely-there gown she wore for her Best Actress win in 1988 turned heads and set tongues wagging at the time.<\/p>\n
“The outfits are sometimes mistaken for fashion, but they’re costumes like for a character in a play,” Mackie said in 1999.<\/p>\n
“I want people to have fun. I want people to say ‘Wasn’t that interesting?’ or ‘Wasn’t that wild?”’<\/p>\n
‘His costumes were works of art’<\/p>\n
Mackie had some retail success in the 1980s and ’90s, launching a ready-to-wear line in 1982 that would ultimately land on the runway at New York Fashion Week, and he was an early partner of QVC.<\/p>\n
Mackie also created dozens of different Barbie dolls for Mattel, with a wide variety of face sculpts, body types and storylines.<\/p>\n
The documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion debuted in 2024.<\/p>\n
A Mackie dress Cher wore in 1975 was auctioned off in 2024 for $US101,600 ($142,000), 25 times its original estimate.<\/p>\n
![\"Whoopi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/b7d761021fb07ed376c5829d318845b2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Host Whoopi Goldberg appears as Queen Elizabeth, in a Bob Mackie costume, during the 1999 Academy Awards. (AP: Eric Draper, File)<\/p>\n
Elton John was among those paying tribute, writing on Instagram, “Every time I put something on that Bob made, I felt very, very special.<\/p>\n
“His costumes were works of art, and he will go down as one of the most legendary designers ever in Hollywood.”<\/p>\n
Cher posted on X: “My dear Bob has gone up to heaven. Knowing him, he\u2019s bringing Sequins, Beads, & his sketch pad. Good nite sweet Prince”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Actor Kristin Chenoweth called him a “legend”, and designer Isaac Mizrahi wrote, simply, “heartbroken”.<\/p>\n
Singer Sabrina Carpenter wrote on Instagram that she felt “so lucky to have met Bob.<\/p>\n
“His one-of-a-kind creations have inspired and brought so much happiness and confidence to my world, and they will continue to always x Mackie girl forever.”<\/p>\n
Actor Alyssa Milano called him “one of the best that ever was”.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood designer Bob Mackie, known for making stars such as Cher and Elton John sparkle, has died at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,6817,461962,45639,67757,20008,134,20638,6515],"class_list":["post-892289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barbara-streisand","tag-bob-mackie","tag-cher","tag-designer","tag-elton-john","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion","tag-julia-louis-dreyfus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}