When a great designer dies, what passes with them is not only craft but a particular way of seeing — the belief that what a performer wears can be as expressive as what they say or sing. Bob Mackie, who died at eighty-seven, spent more than four decades translating Cher's instincts into garments that became part of television history. A 2013 interview, now recast by his absence, reminds us that the partnership between performer and designer is one of the quieter, undervalued collaborations in the art of public life.
Cher Reflects on Legendary Designer Bob Mackie's Fashion Legacy
Clothes could become an extension of a performer's voice
Mark
So this interview is from 2013, but Mackie just died. Why does CBS think it's worth revisiting now?
Mimi
Because it's one of the last times Cher spoke publicly about their partnership. When someone dies, you look back at what they left behind—and in this case, what they left behind together.
Luke
But the article doesn't actually tell us what Cher said in that interview. We get the setup—that they worked together for over 40 years—but not her actual words or what she reflected on.
Mimi
That's fair. The piece is more of a frame than a full transcript. It's CBS saying, "We have this conversation from 2013, and now it matters differently."
Mark
What made their partnership so significant? Was it just that he was good at his job?
Mimi
He was exceptional at his job, but it was more than that. Mackie understood how to make clothes that became part of a performer's identity. With Cher, he created a visual language that lasted decades.
Luke
The metadata says they collaborated for over 40 years, but the article doesn't specify when it started or ended. Did they work together continuously, or were there gaps?
Mimi
The article mentions "The Sonny & Cher Show," TV specials, and stage productions, but you're right—it doesn't give us a timeline. We know it was long and sustained, but the specifics aren't there.
Mark
What does it mean that this is a "web exclusive" from 2013? Is the full interview available?
Mimi
The headline suggests it is, but this piece is really just the announcement and context. The actual conversation is somewhere else—or was, when it first aired.
Luke
So readers clicking on this expecting to hear what Cher actually said about Mackie might be disappointed. The article is more about the fact of the partnership than the substance of what she reflected on.
Mimi
Yes. It's a memorial frame around an interview, not the interview itself.
The Pulse
- The death of Bob Mackie at eighty-seven closes a chapter in entertainment history that few designers of his generation could claim to have written so boldly.
- His four-decade collaboration with Cher was not a service relationship — it was a creative alliance that shaped how millions understood glamour and spectacle on screen.
- A 2013 CBS News interview, originally a reflection on fashion and artistry, now carries the weight of an elegy, capturing Cher's gratitude before loss gave it new meaning.
- Mackie's passing arrives at a moment when the tradition he represented — costume as transformation, spectacle as craft — has few remaining champions.
- The conversation around his legacy is already shifting from appreciation to reckoning: what is lost when the designers who built the visual grammar of television are gone?
When a great designer dies, what passes with them is not only craft but a particular way of seeing — the belief that what a performer wears can be as expressive as what they say or sing. Bob Mackie, who died at eighty-seven, spent more than four decades translating Cher's instincts into garments that became part of television history. A 2013 interview, now recast by his absence, reminds us that the partnership between performer and designer is one of the quieter, undervalued collaborations in the art of public life.
Bob Mackie died on September 14, 2026, at eighty-seven. He left behind a body of work that redefined what glamour could mean on a television screen, and much of it was built alongside Cher — a collaboration that stretched across more than forty years and some of the most recognizable costumes in performance history.
In 2013, Cher sat down with CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason to reflect on that partnership. What the conversation revealed was not simply affection between collaborators, but a shared understanding of what clothes could do. For Cher, fashion was never decoration — it was language. And Mackie was among the most fluent speakers of it, capable of turning her instincts into garments that felt both impossible and inevitable.
He had dressed her for 'The Sonny & Cher Show' in the early 1970s, and continued through television specials and stage productions that followed. At each turn, he helped construct the visual identity of a performer who understood that what she wore mattered as much as what she sang.
The 2013 interview, now reframed by his death, reads like a document of something larger — a testament to the idea that costume design is a genuine art form, one requiring technical mastery, creative vision, and an intimate understanding of how a body moves through light and space. Mackie possessed all of it, and applied it during a period when television was still discovering what it could be.
His passing marks the end of a tradition that valued spectacle and craft at a time when much of fashion has grown disposable. What he and Cher built together was not just memorable television — it was a visual grammar that shaped how performers thought about their own presentation for generations after.
Bob Mackie died on September 14, 2026, at eighty-seven years old. He left behind a body of work that shaped how millions of people understood glamour, spectacle, and the relationship between a performer's body and the clothes that frame it. Much of that legacy was built in collaboration with Cher, a partnership that spanned more than four decades and produced some of the most recognizable costumes in television and live performance history.
In 2013, years before his death, Cher sat down with CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason to reflect on that partnership and what clothes meant to her as an artist. The conversation captured something essential about their working relationship: it was not simply about dressing a performer. It was about understanding how fabric, color, and construction could become an extension of a performer's voice.
Mackie had dressed Cher for "The Sonny & Cher Show," the variety program that ran in the early 1970s and made both Sonny Bono and Cher household names. He continued to design for her through television specials and stage productions that followed. Over those decades, he became the architect of Cher's visual identity at crucial moments in her career—moments when what she wore mattered as much as what she sang.
In the 2013 interview, Cher spoke about her relationship with clothes not as mere costume but as a form of artistic expression. She understood that fashion was a language, and Mackie was fluent in it. He could translate her instincts into garments that felt both impossible and inevitable—the kind of clothes that made audiences lean forward in their seats.
The partnership between performer and designer is rarely discussed with the weight it deserves. A great costume designer does not simply make clothes; they collaborate in the creation of a public self. They understand the performer's body, their movement, their presence. They know what will catch light on stage, what will read from the back of a theater, what will make a moment unforgettable. Mackie possessed all of these skills, and he applied them to Cher's career at a time when television was still discovering what it could be visually.
Mackie's death marks a genuine loss for entertainment history. He was one of the last designers working in a tradition that valued spectacle, craft, and the idea that clothes could be transformative. In an era when much of fashion has become democratized and disposable, his work stood as a reminder that costume design is an art form—one that requires technical mastery, creative vision, and a deep understanding of performance.
The 2013 interview with Cher, now reframed by his passing, becomes something like a document of that partnership. It captures Cher's gratitude for what Mackie had given her, and implicitly, what she had given audiences through his designs. Their collaboration produced not just memorable television moments but a visual language that influenced how performers thought about their own presentation for generations to come.
Notable Quotes
Cher spoke about her relationship with clothes as a form of artistic expression— Cher, in 2013 interview with Anthony Mason
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