Before there was underboob, sideboob, and, I’m sorry to say, butt cleavage; before there was Rihanna in a fishnet gown and a prayer; before there was Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Emily Ratajkowski—there was Bob Mackie, the designer who made naked dressing an art and a game.
Mackie was a master of sheer mesh and the well-placed sequin, and he demonstrated that mastery on Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Cher, Goldie Hawn, and, most recently, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, and Taylor Swift. If you ever watched an award show and gasped, there’s a good chance Bob Mackie was involved.