Bob Mackie treasures hit the auction block, two must-see art exhibitions in DTLA exploring objects and scale and holiday gift ideas from Manolo Blahniks to Chan Luu pearl tassels.
Mackie Designs for Cher, Tina Turner, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hit the Auction Block
‘Tis the season for auctions. Following the record-setting $236.4 million sale of a Gustav Klimt painting and a Titanic passenger’s pocket watch selling for $2.3 million, a Bob Mackie record might be next.
On Dec. 3 at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Julien’s Auctions is selling some of the California designer’s iconic pieces, including Cher’s nude-illusion look from a 1978 ABC TV special seen above, a gold and silver chain fringe bodysuit with pleated gold lamé wings worn by Tina Turner at her 1977 Caesars Palace residency in Las Vegas and a black sequin strip dress from the 1970s worn by Sabrina Carpenter for her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, and by Ann-Margret years before that.
“When we put things up for auction we try to pick things that would amuse people to own,” Mackie told me when I interviewed him recently for a C Magazine story. “So many people want to own something that a person has worn and performed in — it becomes very special. And it isn’t just girls. There are a lot of men out there with mannequins in their living rooms.”
Mackie’s career has spanned an astounding 60-plus years, from Hollywood’s golden age to the social media age, and he continues to be in the conversation, with Swarovski’s recent “Masters of Light Hollywood” exhibition featuring three Mackie creations, including the original nude-illusion gown he created for Marilyn Monroe with designer Jean Louis.
Next-gen celebrity fans have been gravitating to his archival costumes and fashion for a few years now.
In the past two months alone, there have been two high-profile moments: Ariana Grande wore a strapless, champagne-colored Mackie gown from the designer’s Fall 1997 collection on NBC’s “Wicked: One Wonderful Night,” and Taylor Swift introduced her “The Life of a Showgirl” era in Mackie’s silver-spangled Las Vegas “Jubilee” look.
Mackie credits stylists like Law Roach, who also works with Grande, for bringing his designs back to the red carpet. “Law came to us for Zendaya,” he recalled. “In the beginning, I told him she was too young for the more outrageous things. We loaned her a ball gown — she wore it to the Time 100 Gala in 2022. Then two years later, when she was inducting Cher into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she called and said, ‘Am I old enough now?’ When Cher saw Zendaya’s bugle-beaded, bare midriff crisscrossing look onstage, she said, ‘What’s she doing in my dress?’’’
Mackie has hundreds of pieces in his archive, and the ones that have made it to the auction block have continued to increase in value, with a Cher look from last year’s sale fetching $101,600, more than 20 times the estimated price.
“A lot of people are wanting to create their own archive of vintage fashion. It could be a personality or celebrity, it could be a stylist, it could even be a production studio wanting to have it,” said Michael Amato, senior fashion specialist at Julien’s Auctions, adding that the value of Mackie costumes has gone up overall because of his association with Hollywood tastemakers like Swift and Miley Cyrus. (Touring for screenings and Q&As with his fabulous 2024 documentary, “Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion” has also put the designer back in the spotlight.)
Cyrus really courted him before he agreed to lend her the 2002 archival dress she performed in at the 2024 Grammys, Mackie told me, adding that she came to the studio and showed him her choreography so he could fit it just right.
During his brief career showing runway collections in New York, Mackie was largely derided by the fashion industry as “Mr. Hollywood,” and his clothes were deemed too flashy. But look at the runways now, full of theatrical clothes made to pop on social media and destined for red carpets, and it’s clear Mr. Hollywood was just ahead of his time.
Online bidding has already started for Julien’s Auctions’ “Bob Mackie: Stage Glamour and the Couture Edit,” and there are some great runway gowns among the 50 styles on offer that would kill it at a New Year’s Eve party.
New Luxe Flagships Bow in SoCal
Manolo Blahnik has landed in California, opening its first West Coast boutique at South Coast Plaza.
It’s been a long time coming for the brand beloved by Princess Diana, Rihanna and Sarah Jessica Parker, who famously said in “Sex and the City,” “I’m getting married. To myself. And I’m registered at Manolo Blahnik.”
It’s easy to see why. With silk brocades, jeweled buckles and sculptural heels, Blahnik’s designs blend old-world sophistication with fantasy, with influences ranging from the Rococo and Regency eras to Surrealism and modern prep.
The store is conceived as a living gallery and carries both the men’s and women’s collections. “The most important part is that there is constant dynamism in the display,” CEO Kristina Blahnik, who has led her uncle’s business since 2013, said. “So wherever possible, we don’t use shelves, but folding slats that support one shoe facing forward. It allows us to tell stories differently, like a musical score with rhythm and pace.”
She sees the design not just as retail, but as storytelling, letting the customer discover the craftsmanship of a crystal-dusted satin Carolyne slingback ready for a holiday soirée, or red suede Alo mules with artful knitted details. “By creating these dynamic spaces I feel that we’re doing the best service to Manolo’s babies.”
Manolo Blahnik, 3333 Bristol St, Costa Mesa, California 92626
Bulgari jewelry has appeared in more than 40 films, and has had ties to Hollywood since the 1950s and ’60s, when Rome became a hub for international filmmaking. When American productions like “Cleopatra” and “Roman Holiday” shot at Cinecittà Studios, stars flocked to Bulgari’s flagship store on Via dei Condotti.
Now they have a destination closer to home worthy of the same adoration. The new Bulgari flagship on Rodeo Drive has a stunning exterior façade composed of handcrafted glass in a motif drawn from the clasp of a heritage bracelet from the 1930s, and it shines like a jewel at night. Inside, a show stopping staircase with a curtain created by Venini draws inspiration from Italian and Californian sunsets, and is composed of over 1,400 Murano glass elements. Travertine columns and fluted walls recall an ancient colonnade, while a Roman-inspired terrace, Bulgari’s first in North America, is the perfect setting for entertaining VIPs.
The store showcases the brand’s iconic collections including Serpenti, Divas’ Dream, Tubogas, B.Zero1 and Octo, as well as a selection of high jewelry from the latest Polychroma collection featuring colorful pieces that bring to mind a famous suite owned by Elizabeth Taylor, one of the house’s early (unofficial) Hollywood ambassadors. “The only word she knows in Italian is Bulgari,” Richard Burton once said. “I introduced Liz to beer and she introduced me to Bulgari.”
Bulgari, 401 N. Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, California 90210.
Chan Luu’s Chic Friendsgiving
Vietnamese-American accessories designer Chan Luu was a mainstay of the L.A. fashion scene in the early aughts, building a multi-category business on the success of her much-imitated leather wrap bracelets made with precious and semi-precious stones. And now the brand is experiencing a renaissance under the leadership of her niece, CEO and creative director Tessa Tran.
Chan Luu’s of-the-moment toe rings were featured in the New York Times, Vogue and numerous other publications this summer, and the ready-to-wear — including the Pinch Waist fleece cardigans and Techno Taffeta barrel-leg pants — has been a hit on fashion Substack and is becoming a bigger part of overall sales.
“We launched it two years ago and the idea was to treat it like an accessory,” Tran said of the vision, which continues her aunt’s legacy of partnering with artisan communities in Vietnam, India, Kenya, Haiti and Inner Mongolia who receive fair pay and a safe, healthy work environment. “Everything has an element of the handmade and hand-touched.”
And at an appealing price point, too, with many pieces under $400.
Tran’s holiday collection was on full display when she hosted a Friendsgiving at Jar restaurant for her chic supporters, including Laurel Pantin, Marlien Rentmeester and Gabriella Gofis putting their own spins on her chandelier crystal-dotted paper trenches, sheer sequin tunics, pearl tassel necklaces and cascading abalone earrings.
It sparked lots of holiday gifting ideas, from pomegranate-printed cotton lounge sets to hand-embroidered ornaments made from fabric remnants. One for you, one for me …
Context and Scale Explored in Two Blockbuster L.A. Shows
Downtown L.A. is playing host to two must-see art shows that explore the context and scale of objects in different ways.
“Robert Therrien: This is a Story,” on view through April 5 at The Broad, is the largest museum exhibition of the late L.A. artist’s work to date. The installation chronicles the origins of Therrien’s personal lexicon of images and symbols, and their power to morph from something serious to something fun, from everyday kitchen objects becoming monumental sculpture, to the devil logo from Underwood canned ham becoming a decorative element on a wall.
Also on view are the enormous tables, chairs, dishes and beards representing his interest in scale, and how encountering an object that is bigger or smaller can challenge one’s assumptions and open up new meaning.
On view through May 3 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick, “Monuments” reconsiders the power and perception of very different objects, juxtaposing decommissioned monuments, many of them Confederate, with works by contemporary artists.
Monument building in the U.S. peaked between the 1890s and 1920s — long after the Civil War — while removals began in 2017, following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina two years earlier.
Toppled in 2020, a Jefferson Davis monument from Richmond, Virginia’s Monument Avenue looks like a discarded piece of trash, displayed on its side with pink graffiti intact, but it shares gallery space with Andres Serrano’s haunting The Klan (1990) portraits of hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan, contrasting a fallen symbol of the Lost Cause myth with the enduring imprint of racist regalia.
Meanwhile, Hank Willis Thomas’ “A Suspension of Hostilities” (2019), a replica of the “General Lee” car from “The Dukes of Hazzard” standing on its end, confronts the normalization of Confederate symbols in popular entertainment. It is displayed alongside an imposing equestrian monument of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, installed in 1947, dedicated in 1984 while the TV show was still on the air, and removed by the Baltimore City Council in 2017.
It’s a stirring exhibition that culminates in Kara Walker’s hacked apart and remade statue of Jackson at The Brick on Western Avenue. Titled “Unmanned Drone,” it’s an appropriately monstrous dissection of the centerpiece of Charlottesville, Virginia’s deadly 2017 Ku Klux Klan rally, and a reminder that meaning is never fixed.
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