How Bob Mackie Changed the Course of My Life

For six decades, Bob Mackie was one of the most influential costume designers in American entertainment, dressing icons like Cher, Diana Ross, Carol Burnett, Tina Turner, Liza Minnelli and Elton John. His designs defined what glamour looked like for generations.

Bob died on September 14. His loss is deeply personal for me. This is the story of the man who changed the course of my life.

It Began with Diana Ross

Diana Ross had just left the Supremes when I met her. We struck up a friendship and eventually I became her fashion stylist. I worked with Diana for two years, including

on Mahogany. Bob Mackie was creating Diana’s wardrobe for the film. I went with Diana to her fittings at Elizabeth Courtney Costumes, and that was how I first came into Bob Mackie’s world.

After Mahogany, Diana moved to New York. Suddenly, I needed a job. I had a six-year-old daughter to support and I had to figure out what came next. Someone suggested licensing. Licensing? I barely knew what that meant.

But I did understand something else. Millions of people were watching Bob’s extraordinary work every week on Cher and Carol Burnett. They saw the glamour, the fantasy, the feathers, the sparkle, the unmistakable Mackie look. And I thought: why couldn’t that glamour become something women could actually own?

Bingo. That became the beginning of Bob Mackie licensing.

From Television Fantasy to Fashion

Swimwear, lingerie, jewelry, furs – fashion that allowed women to have a little piece of the fantasy they were seeing on television.

We launched Bob Mackie Beach and Beyond Collection for Cole of California at the Beverly Hills Hotel. It was a first in the swimwear industry. A spectacular fashion show with all the theatricality that made Mackie, Mackie.

On the heels of Cole of California came another licensee, Glydons Lingerie. Its launch at Studio 54 was classic Mackie: glamorous, theatrical and unforgettable. From there came the major fashion shows at the Felt Forum and during Fashion Week, each one bigger and more spectacular. They became some of the hottest tickets in town.

I was responsible for hiring the models, working with the set designers, creating the run of show and styling the collections. But Bob had his finger on everything. Every fitting, every model, every accessory, and every detail.

Bob approached each creation with the excitement, intensity and attention to detail of doing it for the very first time.

He could look at something that was already beautiful and know exactly what it needed to become extraordinary. A piece of jewelry, a belt, a feather, the way a garment moved on a model. He would add that final bit of magic, what I came to think of as accessorizing “the Mackie way.”

Nothing was ever treated as though we had done it before. Bob approached each creation with the excitement, intensity and attention to detail of doing it for the very first time. That may have been one of his greatest lessons: excellence was never routine. I was in grad school, and Bob was an extraordinary teacher.

A Different Kind of Education

And then my own life began to pivot. I started exploring my Jewish roots. I began asking very different questions about who I was, where I came from, and what I wanted my life to be about.

And remarkably, Bob was there for that chapter too.

When I remarried, Bob created my extraordinary wedding dress. I can still see us in the fitting room. Of course, it had to be beautiful. This was Bob Mackie. But beautiful wasn’t enough.

Could I move in it? Could I celebrate in it? Most importantly, could I dance in it?

So Bob danced with me. He had me raise my arms as we moved, making certain the dress moved with me. It was a small moment, but it captured Bob perfectly. Beauty alone was never enough. A creation had to work, it had to move, it had to live.

Looking back, I realize that wedding dress represented something much larger for me. It became a bridge between two very different worlds. My world was now moving towards something deeper: exploring my Jewish identity, building a marriage and family, discovering faith and community, and finding a new sense of purpose.

That wedding dress became a bridge between two very different worlds.

But I wasn’t leaving one world behind to enter another. I was carrying its lessons with me, not yet knowing how profoundly they would shape everything I would go on to create.

Creating Experiences for the Jewish Community

Years later, I would take those lessons into an entirely different world. I wasn’t launching bathing suits at the Beverly Hills Hotel anymore. I was producing events, films and experiences for the Jewish community.

But the questions I asked myself were remarkably similar. How do you make people feel something from the moment they enter a room? How do you tell a story visually? How do you create anticipation? How do you make an entrance matter? How do you build toward a moment?

And perhaps most importantly: how do you make people remember not simply what they saw, but what they felt?

Those were the lessons I learned from Bob. But beneath them was something even more profound: excellence is a discipline. You never give less simply because you’ve done something before, and you never dismiss the smallest detail because you think no one else will notice.

For Bob, nothing was ever routine. Every creation deserved the curiosity, energy and commitment of a first creation. That relentless pursuit of excellence became part of how I see the world, and ultimately, part of how I learned to create.

From Glamour to Purpose

Somewhere along the way, I realized that everything I had learned in those seven extraordinary years could be used for something much larger than fashion. The power of WOW, the storytelling, the beauty, the discipline, the attention to detail, the surprise, and that relentless pursuit of excellence. I could pour everything I had learned into something that had become the deepest expression of who I was: the Jewish people.

What an extraordinary journey. It began beside Diana Ross in a fitting room, led me to dancing with Bob Mackie in that same fitting room in the wedding dress he created for me, and ultimately to a life devoted to creating experiences that celebrate Jewish life, tell Jewish stories and strengthen Jewish continuity.

The worlds may look completely different. But the thread running through them is the same:

Make it matter. Make it memorable. And whatever you create, give it everything you have.

I will miss you forever Bob. You changed my life.