The ‘Sultan of Sequins' Gets Another Look

New York Times

a day ago

The designer Bob Mackie strolled through a gallery at the Soho Grand Hotel one recent afternoon while a team installed a show featuring his fashion sketches of divas like Cher, Madonna and Tina Turner, which became his blueprints for the glitzy dresses that electrified their personas on the stage.
Mr. Mackie, slightly tired from his journey from California to New York but still upbeat, considered his sketch of Cher's black jeweled and black feathered outfit from the 1986 Academy Awards: 'It turned Cher into this amazing exotic odd being — she seems not real, and yet, she is.' Then he considered his drawing of Elton John in a bedazzled pink jumpsuit: 'I told Elton he could be a new age Liberace, and I guess that's kind of what he became.'
But Mr. Mackie paused when he arrived at his 1991 sketch of Madonna wearing a shimmering gown that paid homage to Marilyn Monroe. He furrowed his brow at the photograph beside it, of a young pop star wearing the same dress.
'Oh god, what's her name?' asked Mr. Mackie, now 86. 'She's that new girl. Sabrina.'
He meant Sabrina Carpenter, who wore the dress as a scene-stealing vintage piece to last year's MTV Video Music Awards.
'Her stylist found it for her,' he said. 'I'm not so familiar with her music, but just look at her, she's really pulling it off.'
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.