While most of us retired our sequins as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, in the world of A-listers, the maxim for the new year is very much ‘start as you mean to go on’. Withkicking off the months-long awards season, who better to turn to than the man who invented viral red carpet dressing? Mr Bob Mackie.
In days where the term ‘icon’ is thrown around like confetti, Mackie, 84, has earned the label as the man who has made costumes for every Hollywood superstar from Marilyn Monroe to Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Madonna, Elton John, Diana Ross and – of course – Cher. Now, his career spanning over six decades is immortalised in a new documentary,, giving intimate insights into the dazzling world of the designer, from his family life to friendships with his long-term collaborators.
As the mastermind behind some of fashion history’s most prolific looks , has he seen great change on the red carpets? ‘Very often would just wear the-lady-next- door evening gowns but when they look like Cher, you don’t want to dress them like the lady next door. You want them to look like stars,’ he says. ‘I watch these days and sometimes they’re just horrendous. You look at them and go, “What made them think that looked good?” And then other times they just look amazing.
If the internet had been around then, Mackie would have been the first one to break it. Regardless, trolls existed then, too. Did it ever stop him? Of course not. ‘When Cher appeared on the scene, all the young girls wanted to look like her. It all changed... almost overnight. They started out as pop singers and, before you knew it, people would watch just to see what she was wearing.’You’d reasonably expect a man responsible for such hype might have an air of arrogance.