Bob Mackie, the costume designer whose glittering, theatrical creations defined decades of American entertainment and helped shape the modern red carpet, has died at 87. His team confirmed the news Monday in a statement posted to his official Instagram account, saying he lived his life to the fullest doing the only thing he ever wanted to do.

News of the Bob Mackie death spread quickly across the entertainment industry Monday, with tributes pouring in from performers whose careers were closely tied to his designs, including Cher, Dolly Parton, Carol Burnett and Tina Turner. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Mackie earned nine Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, three Academy Award nominations and a place in the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

How Mackie’s Team Announced His Death

The statement shared on Mackie’s Instagram account said it was with a heavy heart that his team shared the news that he had passed away, adding that he lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a fashion and costume designer, which the statement said was all he ever wanted to do. The post concluded by saying his genius and extraordinary designs would live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into the world.

The statement did not specify a cause of death. News organizations reported reaching out to representatives for Mackie for additional comment following the announcement.

Early Career and Breakthrough

Mackie’s rise to prominence in Hollywood began when performer Mitzi Gaynor hired him to design costumes for her Las Vegas stage revue. That partnership expanded into Gaynor’s television specials, which brought Mackie his first Emmy Award recognition and established him as a rising talent in an industry built on visual spectacle.

His career accelerated further when he landed the job designing costumes for “The Carol Burnett Show” in 1967, a role he held throughout the variety series’ 11-season run. The collaboration with Burnett became one of the defining partnerships of Mackie’s career, producing some of his most memorable and widely referenced designs, including a curtain-rod gown parody that Mackie once said would be carved on his gravestone.

The Designer Behind Some of Pop Culture’s Most Iconic Looks

Mackie became known across the industry by nicknames that reflected his signature style, including the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones and the Guru of Glitter. His designs, built around sequins, feathers, beads and an unmistakable sense of showmanship, helped define the on-stage and on-screen images of some of the biggest entertainers of the 20th century.

His collaboration with Cher proved especially influential, spanning her television appearances and concert tours and producing some of the most recognizable outfits in pop culture history. Fern Mallis, the former executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and founder of New York Fashion Week, said in a past interview that Mackie’s fashion shows were spectacular and theatrical, and credited him with inventing the so-called naked dress, a sheer gown style with strategically placed beading that influenced red carpet fashion for generations of stars that followed.

Beyond Cher, Mackie’s client list included Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Liza Minnelli, Elton John and Miley Cyrus, among many others. His work helped define the visual language of American variety television and concert spectacle throughout the 1970s, 1980s and beyond.

Awards and Recognition

Over his career, Mackie was nominated for 32 Emmy Awards and won nine of them, including honors for his work with Burnett, Gaynor and Ross. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2002, one of the industry’s highest honors for career achievement in television.

Mackie also found success in theater, winning a Tony Award for his costume design work on the Broadway musical “The Cher Show.” In 1999, the Museum at FIT in New York held a retrospective exhibition dedicated to his work, and he later received a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, cementing his status as one of the most influential costume designers in American entertainment history.

A New Generation Discovers His Archive

In recent years, Mackie’s designs found renewed attention as younger performers began pulling archival pieces from his decades-long body of work for major public appearances. Pop star Sabrina Carpenter repeatedly wore vintage Mackie designs to high-profile events, including a sparkling silver-and-white gown at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards that had originally been created for Madonna’s 1991 Academy Awards performance.

Before his death, Mackie acknowledged that performers including Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and Zendaya had developed a renewed appetite for his archival creations, a trend that introduced his work to audiences who had not grown up watching the television specials and concert tours where his designs first became famous.

Remembering His Partnership With Carol Burnett

Mackie’s decades-long collaboration with Carol Burnett remained one of the most celebrated relationships of his career. In a past interview, the two reflected on their partnership, which began in 1967 and became one of the defining creative pairings of American television comedy. Mackie also designed Burnett’s costumes for a 2005 television production of “Once Upon a Mattress,” in which she played Queen Aggravain, a role he said called for excess, describing the character as glamorous, mean and dressed in far too many clothes all at once.

That partnership, along with his enduring work with Cher, helped define Mackie’s reputation not just as a costume designer but as a collaborator who shaped how audiences remember some of entertainment’s most enduring stars.

Why His Influence Still Matters Today

Mackie’s impact reaches well beyond the specific gowns and costumes he created. Industry figures have credited him with shaping many of the red carpet trends that remain common today, from sheer, heavily beaded gowns to the theatrical showmanship that now defines major award shows and concert tours. His influence can still be traced through contemporary fashion moments, particularly as younger stars continue reviving his original designs for modern audiences.

For American entertainment audiences, Mackie’s death marks the loss of a designer whose work became inseparable from the identities of some of the most recognizable performers in modern pop culture, from Cher’s concert stages to Dolly Parton’s television appearances to Carol Burnett’s decade-plus run on network television.

What Comes Next

No public funeral or memorial details had been announced as of Monday. Tributes from collaborators, fashion industry figures and the performers he dressed throughout his career continued to circulate following the announcement of his death.

Mackie’s archive of designs, along with the influence he had on generations of performers and fashion figures, is expected to remain a reference point in American fashion and entertainment history for years to come, as new performers continue to draw on his work for major public appearances.