The news that Bob Mackie would not be designing clothing for Cher’s upcoming tour — after nearly 50 years of a memorable partnership — rocked our world Friday, and no one was more devastated about it than Cher herself. She went on a Twitter posting spree about it (sample Tweet: “Telling you Something That Has BROKEN MY HEART THE MAN WHO MADE ALL MY COSTUMES SINCE 1972 DECIDED HE COULDNT DO MY LAST TOUR”). While Mackie cited time restrictions as the reason why he couldn’t costume her latest “farewell tour,” we have to wonder if it’s possible that he just ran out of outrageous ideas for the star to wear. After all, since the beginning of their partnership, he has come up with some pretty memorable looks.
WireImage; Corbis
After meeting on the set of the Carol Burnett Show in 1967, Mackie and Cher made it very clearly early on that their partnership was going to involve a lot of skin and sequins. As his date to the “Romantic and Glamourous Hollywood Design” exhibition in 1974, Cher stepped out in a look whose influence can still be seen on stars today — a sheer, strategically beaded and feathered white gown. He also was responsible for her jaw-dropping 1986 Oscars look, a fringed two-piece zigzag number with a matching over-the-top headpiece. Think she felt uncomfortable? Think again. “”Bob used to say — and I always felt it — ‘There’s nothing that I can put her in that she doesn’t feel fine in,’” Cher once said.
RELATED: Check out Cher’s changing looks throughout the years!
WireImage; Getty (2)
For a Halloween party in 1988, Mackie and Cher did Cleopatra like no other, with hair as big as her coverage was little. Mackie also dressed her for numerous Oscars appearances, but there was one look she didn’t like (which might have also been the most conventional — save for the hat, of course). She told The Hollywood Reporter, “I liked the hat and had all kinds of time to tell Bob I didn’t really like the dress, but I didn’t realize how much till I walked out the door.”
And finally Mackie created the looks for her 2002 “farewell tour,” including this truly exceptional lame-and-fur coat with matching headdress. “It was like building a battleship with all the pieces and layers,” he says of the costumes for her 2008 farewell tour. “It was full, long days and lots of nervousness.” We’ll miss their mind-melding insanity in this next go-around, but Cher seems to have moved on:
THANK GOD I HAVE A LOVELY MAN & WONDERFUL DESIGNER !! HUGH DURANT.
HE IS TALENTED
& BRAVE 💪
WE WILL PERSEVERE 😘—
Cher (@cher) March 13, 2014
Which of Cher’s Mackie moments is your fave? Are you excited to see her try a new partnership?
–Alex Apatoff
