Designer Ray Aghayan, Bob Mackie's Partner, Dies

Ray Aghayan, who designed costumes for Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Diana Ross, and was the longtime partner of fellow designer Bob Mackie, has died at age 83.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Aghayan, raised in Tehran as the son of a society couturier, lived a colorful life. He began an accomplished career at age 14 designed the mourning clothes for the wife of the shah of Iran, Queen Fawzia. He convinced his mother to allow him to move on his own to Los Angeles three years later.

Aghayan would go on to design costumes for an illustrious array of entertainers, which besides Garland, Ross, and Streisand included Julie Andrews, Lucille Ball, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Barbara Eden, Raquel Welch, and the Jackson Five.

Aghayan, along with Mackie, won the first Emmy Award given for costume design for 1967's Alice Through The Looking Glass. He would receive three Academy Award nominations, for designing costumes for the films Gaily, Gaily; Lady Sings the Blues; and Funny Lady. He received a Tony Award nomination for the musical Applause. Among his other notable achievements, Aghayan designed the costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics.