Bob Mackie Talks Cher, Barbie and New Documentary

While thousands of weekenders and vacationers flood the Hamptons each summer, Bob Mackie will be making a guest appearance there for the first time in decades.

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The California-based costume and fashion designer will be winging it to the East End for a screening of the documentary “ Bob Mackie : Naked Illusion,” and a discussion with Derek Blasberg on Aug. 17 at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The occasion will be Mackie’s first East End visit since the ’80s. On Aug. 21, he will be the guest of honor at another screening and talk in Provincetown, Mass., and a third event is scheduled for Dec. 4 at 92NY.

Filmgoers will catch glimpses of Cher, Pink, RuPaul, Carol Burnett, Miley Cyrus, Mitzi Gaynor and Bernadette Peters in the Matthew Miele-directed flick. Some of those bold-faced names turned out for the Hollywood premiere this year. Catching the screening with some of his nearest and dearest was a tad strange, Mackie said. “I never thought in a million years that I’d be doing one of those. But it was just fun to do, and to watch yourself change over the years,” he said. “You’re just hoping that it will look good, be entertaining and look fun.”

The documentary also offers clips of the many shows, films, musicals and concert tours that the nine-time Emmy and three-time Oscar nominee has done, including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” and Bernadette Peters Broadway performance in “On The Town.”

Over-the-top is a specialty for Mackie, as seen in Cher’s midriff-baring all-black ultra-sheer Oscars look with a coordinating feathered headdress. “I’ve dressed so many people in so many shows and movies. I don’t know what happened to all those years. They just disappeared into memory,” Mackie said with a laugh.

After 11-plus years of designing for Burnett’s show, and countless specials and other events, as well as multiple ones with other VIPs like Cher, Mackie said, “They just become part of my family. People say, ‘Oh, well, didn’t you have trouble with any of them?’ and I say, ‘Hardly any — I really had the best people working with me. They liked what I did and I loved what they did. When you dress somebody, you’ve really got to know them inside and out especially if they’re performers. You have to know what’s good for them and how to make them look the best. Also, having a knowledge of their talents helps.”

The same might be said of his skill set executing ultra-glam creations from sketch to stage. He’s also received a 2019 Tony award, a Drama Desk award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his work on “The Cher Show.”

Mackie acknowledged her staying power and popularity, and said many people used to tune into her TV show just to see what she was going to wear and say. An inductee of the Television Academy Hall of Fame, he described Burnett as “wildly talented, funny and smart.

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“I never wanted to be a fashion designer. I just wanted to be a costume designer,“ he siad.

“After doing about 20 years of constant television, movies, stage shows and other costume design, I got an offer to go to New York and do it for a while. And than I came back to L.A. and started doing more theatrical things again. I enjoy doing both. But creating and dressing a character for a play, and making the audience understand who that is they’re watching and where they came from just by the way they look, is so much fun,” he said.

Now 85, he’s never stopped working since 1961. After three years of attending the Chouinard Art Institute on scholarship, he was eager to start his career, so he dropped out. With his portfolio in hand, he landed work that same week. Edith Head and Jean Louis were two of his early employers. And entertainment assignments continue to this day. “My energy is pretty good. I’m a lot older. There are days that are not as easy as they used to be. I used to love working long, long hours. It probably saved me from a lot of other stuff. But I did enjoy it. You became part of the family,” he said.

Having done major Vegas shows for big-name talent as well as concerts, Mackie is crafting a Las Vegas show that will encompass a compilation of the many shows he’s had a hand in. He’s also dreaming up a few new special Barbie dolls for Mattel, which first recruited him for namesake dolls in 1982. Mackie said, “I thought, ‘Why not?’ I don’t do the Barbies that are housewives or secretaries or airline stewardesses. I do the ones that are glamour girls.”

Although Mackie is no longer dialed into emerging fashion talent, as he once was, he has noticed the resurgence of age-old looks and details that young designers have mined from the Internet. “There are looks from the ’60s or even the ’50s. You think, ‘Wait a minute. Didn’t we already live through that already?’”

Nevertheless, he is always onto the next assignment. He explained, “I really like what I do and I enjoy doing it. It never occurred to me not to.”

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