Viewers of beloved game show “Wheel of Fortune” may have noticed co-host Vanna White is looking particularly glam this week. The letter spinner has been modeling Bob Mackie archival gowns to help promote a new “Wheel of Fortune” collection by the designer available at shopwheeloffortune.com.
“I have been watching ‘Wheel’ and ‘Jeopardy’ since the Eighties. They are part of American life. Some nights I get all the answers and some nights I think I lost my brain,” Mackie said in an interview with WWD. “Also, Vanna wore some of my dresses way back when and amazingly she is exactly the same size today.” During the week, White also wears a new design Mackie custom-made for her, as well as a more casual piece, a $99 rainbow wheel pattern kimono from the “Wheel of Fortune” collection, which includes glitter T-shirts, denim jackets, scarves and neckties.
“I have been a huge fan of his my whole life,” said White, who has been on “Wheel” for 38 years. She made headlines at the end of last year after stepping in to host the show for three weeks while Pat Sajak was out for emergency surgery. With more than 25 million weekly viewers, the Sony Pictures Television show on CBS reaches more people than any other program on TV.
Beginning as a sketch artist under legendary costume designer Edith Head, Mackie is responsible for some of Hollywood’s most iconic looks on-screen and on the red carpet, having dressed Cher, Carol Burnett, Bette Midler, Elton John and many more. He has also been designing a collection for QVC since 1992.
The Emmy and Tony award-winner has been quarantining at his house in the desert during the pandemic. “I am so grateful every day I get up and look at the beautiful, blue sky and the mountains, which have snow on the top, and go out on my patio,” said the designer, who is the subject of an upcoming documentary film produced by Anne Chertoff, set to be released in December of this year. “So who cares if it’s 110 degrees?”
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