Bob Mackie obituary

American fashion designer and costumier who clothed glamorous showbiz celebrities, especially Cher

Most costume designers are novelists, supplying character, back stories, social placement and history, done in cloth. Bob Mackie was also a genius cartoonist, assembling details into an image, memorable on sight, that could hold anything from a small 1960s television screen to a concert arena.

Mackie, who has died aged 87, was master of the showbiz sartorial aesthetic that evolved on stage and in films to entertain in itself as well as project performers.

Rhinestones, sequins, beads, plaques, plumes, plush, le tout ensemble. An audience got a big kick from a Mackie costume before a word was spoken or a note was sung, and performers had total confidence in him, as he studied their bodies, movements and personality before designing.

He did that with divas from Judy Garland through Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Whitney Houston, Madonna and, especially, Cher.