It was also during this era that one of his most famous signatures—the naked dress, featuring a see-through mesh construction that matches the wearer’s skin tone—was born. Mackie says he crafted his very first naked dress for Mitzi Gaynor back in 1968. “She had a beautiful figure, and loved to get dressed up,” says Mackie of the inspiration. “[At the time,] I was drawing sketches for the French designer Jean Louis, who had been doing the Marlene Dietrich outfits for Vegas whenever she was performing. They were rather see-through, and I thought, ‘Well, I could do that.’”
Of course, Mackie’s many naked dresses for Cher—including that dress she wore to the 1974 Met Gala—shot the designer’s work into an entirely new stratosphere. He recalls the moment she wore his naked dress on the cover of Time in 1975—and the controversy that ensued. “It was sort of shocking and wild,” says Mackie. “We didn’t expect it at all. In some places in the country, it was banned from the newsstands, or they ripped the covers off. I mean, it was just really silly. Today, you’re lucky if you can keep everybody covered.”
Clearly, Mackie was ahead of his time with the look, as the naked dress remains wildly popular. (In fact, it was one of this year’s biggest red carpet trends, with It girls like Bella Hadid, Charli XCX, and Zoe Kravitz all wearing totally transparent designs.) For Mackie, this imitation is a form of flattery. “They kept knocking my old stuff off for a while, and nobody paid much attention,” he says. “Now, all of a sudden, these young performers are wanting to borrow things from my archive, or having me do special ones for them.”
Recently, Mackie’s archival dresses have been a hit with the next generation of talent: We’ve seen his pieces on Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, and more. Often, the stars or their stylists hit him up directly to revive one of his older designs—though he remains selective about who gets access to the precious gems. “I don’t like to hand things out to people [if] I think it’s not going to look very good on them,” Mackie says. “I’m very careful about what I put on people, and how they look.” When he does dress celebs, however, Mackie says it’s certainly special to see his designs take on new lives. “Miley is one of those stars that were born to be on stage,” says Mackie. (When she wore his dress to the Grammys, it went instantly viral.) “You just watch her do her thing at the Grammys and you go, ‘Okay, honey, you’re working it.’”
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
It’s not just Young Hollywood stars who are calling Mackie for looks, either. On TikTok, many Gen Z fashion lovers are documenting their Bob Mackie finds. Though the designer hasn’t seen these videos—“I’m not [on TikTok], I’m an old dinosaur,” he says—he appreciates the passion for his work. “It’s lovely when things keep going on forever, I guess. The dresses are out there; there were times when I was doing collections of clothes and would make dozens of the same dress. Now, they’re ending up in these resale places or vintage shops.”
