A Look Back at Bob Mackie’s Ever-Popular Bedazzled Showgirl Style

Up until a few years ago, Bob Mackie – who died aged 87 on 14 September 2026 – was best known as the creator of Cher’s most outré looks of the ’70s and ’80s: sequin-spangled designs that felt part couture, part costume. Take the feather-kissed look she wore to the Met Gala in 1974 – subsequently photographed by Richard Avedon for Vogue – or the bedazzled showgirl number she chose for the Oscars in 1986. “Bob and I are both perfectionists when it comes to fit,” she previously told Vogue. “We’re never satisfied until every inch is perfect.”

In the 2020s, however, the octogenarian designer’s work experienced a renaissance. Of course, Kim Kardashian garnered headlines when she (controversially) turned up at the Met Gala in the exact design that Marilyn Monroe wore to serenade President John F Kennedy in 1962 (sketched by Bob Mackie for costume designer Jean-Louis), but Hollywood stylists and starlets had rediscovered Mackie’s oeuvre even before Kim placed a call to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

Miley Cyrus spent two consecutive New Year’s Eves in Mackie’s creations: she rang in 2022 in a vintage fringed gown after performing in a beaded one-shouldered dress from autumn/winter 2002 the year before. In 2024, when Cyrus won her first Grammy, she wore Mackie for the occasion.

Elsewhere, Zendaya and Anya Taylor-Joy have been introduced to the American designer’s work via stylist Law Roach. The former wore a color-block gown from autumn/winter 1998 to the Time 100 Gala in 2021, which Roach says had been in the pipeline for two years – “we just waited for the right place”. In 2024, at a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Cher, Zendaya paid homage to Mackie’s muse in one of his 2001 creations (with the signature long, black hair to match). The latter sported an elaborate wedding gown from Roach’s personal archive to the premiere of Emma in 2020, and another Mackie dress to celebrate Cyrus’s star on the Walk of Fame.

“It’s iconic,” remarked Roach of Mackie’s extensive career. “I just think that he’s a treasure, honestly […] the magnitude of what he’s produced, accomplished and shown the world is just insane.” The stylist, who’s been inspired by Mackie’s work since his early career, has seen inside the late designer’s wondrous archive and had met him in person. For Roach, the “most amazing part” is that Mackie was aware of his styling work. “It’s just flattering that he’s followed my work and asked to meet me,” he says. “He just really, really loves what he does and he loves his gift.”

For Cherie Balch, founder of Shrimpton Couture, Mackie’s “commitment to glitz and glam” made him stand out. “I have always loved his work,” explains the vintage specialist, who sourced his looks for the red carpet. “It gives me great joy to see others finally ‘getting it’ and valuing [Mackie’s collections] for the outstanding work that it is.” Another convert to the designer’s razzle-dazzle style? Kate Moss, who appeared in a strapless black sequinned gown from Classified Vintage for a 2023 Charlotte Tilbury campaign.

Below, Vogue remembers some of Bob Mackie’s best looks through the years.

This article was originally published on British Vogue.

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