The Sultan of Sequins

Hollywood costume designer Bob Mackie reflects on his shimmering career

Costume Designer Bob Mackie.

Bob Mackie is having his star moment. The 85-year-old Hollywood costume designer, known as the “Sultan of Sequins” for the spangly, sexy outfits he made for Cher, Carol Burnett, Tina Turner and Diana Ross in the 1970s and 1980s, is the subject of an absolutely delightful documentary, Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion, which screened at the Berkshire International Film Festival last week, and is available on both Apple and Amazon Prime. He was in New York this week to open Bob Mackie: From Sketches to Spotlight, an exhibition of his work on show at the Soho Grand Gallery, through August 31. And the luxury cruise line Cunard announced this week that Mackie is also a featured guest on the Queen Mary 2’s “Fashion Week” transatlantic crossing from New York to Southhampton, England this fall, along with designer Christian Siriano and me!

As it happens, I too was at the Berkshire International Film Festival last week, speaking about my book, Fashionopolis: The Prices of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, and found myself staying at the same guest house—the lovely Granville House Inn in Great Barrington, Mass.—as Mr. Mackie. So we sat down one morning in the pretty living room for tea and had a chat about his storied career, from assisting Hollywood costumers Jean Louis and Edith Head to seeing his clothes worn by a new generation of stars, including Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter and Zendaya. Excerpts:

How did your fascination with costume design begin?

I wanted to be part of show business from the time I was five years old. My mother was a movie fan, along with my half-sister, who was ten years older than me. The first movie that I loved more than anything was Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien, who said she was five years old, too. To me, it was full of magic. I just thought: ‘I’ve got to do this.’

Margaret O’Brien and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis.

And then I just started being a movie kid. That’s all I wanted to do: Go to the movies. Technicolor was my favorite. I loved Betty Grable and I loved Carmen Miranda, with all those funny clothes and everything.

At 21, you went to work for Jean Louis, the costume designer for Columbia Pictures in the 1940s and 1950s, and then went to Fox and Universal Studios. How did you get the job?

I was going to the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and they had a costume design department, and I was doing well there. I was on scholarship, and had been there two years, when I said, ‘I got to get out of here. I need to pay the rent.’ So I quit.

I got hired the next day to work with Jean Louis. He saw my portfolio, and I had one sketch that looked like movie clothes: a blonde in a beaded dress with a man in a tuxedo. He saw that, and said, ‘I want him.’

From there you worked with Edith Head, who was also at Universal. How did that come about?

I was in an office that was on the way to the ladies’ room, and every time Edith went to the ladies’ room, she’d come in to see what I was doing—my sketches—and go, ‘Okay, well, whatever.’ Then one day, she came in and said, ‘Do you know how to draw strippers?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I bet I could.’ It was for The Stripper, a 1963 movie with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Edith’s artists could draw suits and dresses, but strippers were not anywhere in their vocabulary. I just drew it up and she went, ‘Oh!’ And I ended up working for her a lot.

Paul Newman, with Joanne Woodward in a stripper costume by Bob Mackie.

What did you learn from Edith Head?