Though the word tends to get thrown around, American fashion designer Bob Mackie is truly a legend. Who canforget the gorgeous costumes he's done for some of Hollywood's sparkliest names including Cher, Carol Burnett (Mackie made her hysterical "curtain dress") Dolly Parton and Diana Ross? Mackie got his start assisting the likes of famous costumer Edith Head and, recently, began offering prints of his costume sketches for sale on his website. Fashion hounds can order a little piece of Hollywood stardust to hang on their living room wall, but, ofcourse, I just had to order one of Mackie's many clown portraits that are also for sale. Mr. Mickey just can't resist a clown portrait! I chatted with Bob about some of the amazing ladies he's worked withand also got his take on current superstars Lady Gaga and Beyonce.
I was so excited to hear about your costume sketches being for sale. Iwent an auction a few years ago that had some of your costumes and sketches for sale and have been kicking myself ever since for not buying anything. I should have hocked all my jewels to buy anAnn-Margret or Cher sketch!
I think I'm going to make more celebrity ones available on my sitelater. Right now, it's more about the art really. We have a whole bunch of portraits of cats for thecat people in the world. Andthe clowns -- I've done a million in my life, a million clown numbers. They're all fun and campy.
I think Ineed 10 more clowns!
If you'relike me, I never buy one of anything.
Absolutely. One of myfavorite costumes you ever made was for the cabaret singer Mitzi Gaynor's 1969 TV special. It's nude and dripping in sparkles. It's the mostgorgeous dress.
Ooh,right. Yes, I think that was thefirst one of those TV specials I ever did and then she took it out on the roadand wore it in her nightclub actfor a couple of years.
It was because of your costumes that I fell in love with Mitzi.
She was kind ofunder-appreciated at the time. Whenyou watch those old specials, you just go, "Wow. Look at that!"
She's sucha pro. My dad always liked her. She was great for horny straight guys.
Even my dad would say, "Oh wow, that Mitzi Gaynor'sreally cute."
In other news, I love all your QVC stuff.
Well,that's a whole other thing, a whole other customer. You know,you do celebrities and performers and then the ladies who shop on QVC. They're all starsin their own right.
Have you been doing any costume designing lately?
I was going to do Catch Me If You Can on Broadway andthen it just wasn't working out with my schedule. I had done the Seattleout-of-town workshop on it and that was fun. I've been doing little things withPink. That was really fun. But not that weekly grind that I used to do, with three or four shows a week.
How did you do that?
I don't know! When I think of it now, I didn't have much social life. I was busy.
What kindof stuff did you do for Pink?
Pink does all those acrobatic trapeze things. She's fearless and amazing. And singing every moment of the time. There'sno pre-record there. Sometimes shesays "I gotta take a deep breath and breathe hard a little bit so they knowthat I'm not prerecorded." You have to pretend that it's hard!
I was blown away when she performed on the Grammys.
She really loves to perform, and she's so good. Have you ever seen her live? She's sucha good performer, a good entertainer. And funny, very funny.
Is there anybodywho you think has that great old kind of Hollywood style?For a longtime with pop stars it wasn't about costumes and production. Now, all of a sudden, I look around andit's like the old days in Las Vegas. The music is different but all thosesurrounding performers and costume changes are all back again.
I think Beyonce is very old-school Vegas.
Oh, bigtime. And even when it was Destiny's Child they were doing their version of oldCher outfits, or Supremes outfits. And her mother was doing it too.
