Ray Aghayan: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Ray Aghayan moved from Tehran to Los Angeles and became one of the architects of mid-century Hollywood and television glamour, dressing Judy Garland, Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand while mentoring — and sharing his life with — Bob Mackie. This mix traces the studio-era costume tradition he inherited, the theatrical-decorative lineage behind his beading and silhouette, and the spectacle designers who came after.

The Kynda mix for Ray Aghayan

• Key Influence · The Sting by Edith Head (1973). Head ran Paramount's wardrobe department and defined the professional model every Hollywood costume designer of Aghayan's generation worked within: research-driven period accuracy married to star flattery. Aghayan entered the studio system in the late 1950s, working at Fox and Columbia in exactly the craft hierarchy Head presided over, and his Oscar-nominated period work on Funny Lady and Lady Sings the Blues answers her brand of researched glamour.
• Influencia Obscura · Schéhérazade (costume and set designs) by Léon Bakst (1910). Bakst's Ballets Russes designs fused Persian and Near Eastern ornament with Western stagecraft, saturating twentieth-century couture with harem trousers, jewelled bodices and orientalist color. For a Tehran-born designer working in Hollywood spectacle, that lineage is the hidden armature beneath the beaded, body-conscious gowns: a theatrical, decorative tradition that reached film costume through fashion rather than through the studios.
• Local Roots · Gilda by Jean Louis (1946). Jean Louis headed costume at Columbia in the Los Angeles studio world Aghayan joined, and his strapless black Rita Hayworth gown — later the template for the illusion-net nude look he built for Marlene Dietrich's nightclub act — is the direct local ancestor of the barely-there beaded sheath Aghayan and Mackie made a television signature. Same city, same ateliers, same beaders and sketch artists.
• Beyond the Medium · Salome (illustrations) by Aubrey Beardsley (1893). Beardsley's black-and-white Salome plates gave decorative art its most extreme line: flattened silhouette, stark negative space, ornament concentrated at a single point of the body. That graphic sensibility — a figure conceived as a cut shape before it is conceived as clothing — is the drawing discipline behind theatrical costume, and it fed directly into the illustration-first method Aghayan and Mackie shared on their fantasy assignments.
• Peer · Bonnie and Clyde by Theadora Van Runkle (1967). Van Runkle broke through in the same late-sixties Hollywood where Aghayan was collecting his Oscar nominations, and her Depression-era berets and midi skirts proved a costume designer could reset real-world fashion from a film. She represents the generation that succeeded the studio chiefs alongside Aghayan, freelancing picture to picture rather than serving a single lot — the working conditions that defined his career.
• From the Canon · Alice Through the Looking Glass by Ray Aghayan (1966). The television special that won Aghayan his Emmy and showed the full range of his imagination: Carroll's chess-piece and playing-card logic realized as wearable fantasy for a live broadcast, with Bob Mackie working alongside him. It is the clearest statement of his method — theatrical invention executed at variety-show speed — and the credit that made him television's most sought-after costume designer.
• Key Collaborator · The Carol Burnett Show by Bob Mackie (1967). Mackie began as Aghayan's sketch artist, became his design partner and was his life partner from the early sixties until Aghayan's death in 2011; the two shared Oscar nominations and television credits for years. Mackie's eleven-season run on Burnett's show — including the curtain-rod Gone With the Wind gown — is the fullest display of the variety-costume craft the two of them developed together in Los Angeles.
• Legacy · RuPaul's Drag Race by Zaldy (2009). Zaldy Goco's costumes for RuPaul descend directly from the Aghayan-Mackie school of television glamour: the beaded illusion gown, the radiating headdress, the garment designed to read as spectacle on camera and to announce a persona in a single entrance. The show's whole visual grammar of the variety-special diva is the inheritance Aghayan built with Garland, Ross and Cher.

What influenced Ray Aghayan

• Pal Joey by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (1940). Pal Joey (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart) — culture for Ray Aghayan (wikidata.org)
• The Sting by Edith Head (1973). The Sting (Edith Head) — titan for Ray Aghayan
• Harper's Bazaar cover designs by Erté (1920). Harper's Bazaar cover designs (Erté) — ghost for Ray Aghayan
• Salome (illustrations) by Aubrey Beardsley (1893). Salome (illustrations) (Aubrey Beardsley) — culture for Ray Aghayan
• Shanghai Express by Travis Banton (1932). Shanghai Express (Travis Banton) — titan for Ray Aghayan
• Lady Sings the Blues (the autobiography) by Billie Holiday with William Dufty (1956). Lady Sings the Blues (the autobiography) (Billie Holiday with William Dufty) — culture for Ray Aghayan
• Schéhérazade (costume and set designs) by Léon Bakst (1910). Schéhérazade (costume and set designs) (Léon Bakst) — ghost for Ray Aghayan
• The Wizard of Oz by Adrian (1939). The Wizard of Oz (Adrian) — titan for Ray Aghayan

Peers and kindred spirits

• Bob Mackie. Mackie and Aghayan continued to work together after Mackie’s assistantship. (also via The Judy Garland Show, Ray Aghayan, The Carol Burnett Show) “He won an Emmy Award in 1967 with his partner Bob Mackie for his work in Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966 film) .” (Wikipedia)
• Judy Garland. Aghayan designed Garland’s television costumes. (also via The Judy Garland Show) “In 1963–64, Aghayan designed dresses and costumes for Judy Garland for her musical variety show on CBS .” (Wikipedia)
• Rex Harrison. The caption identifies Aghayan as designing a costume for Harrison. “Ray Aghayan costume design for Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle (1967)” (Wikipedia)
• Gower Champion. Aghayan worked with Champion on the ceremony. “In 1969, he was the costume consultant on the 41st Academy Awards ceremony, working with show producer/director Gower Champion .” (Wikipedia)
• Consenting Adult. Aghayan produced the television drama. “Aghayan was the producer of the 1985 television drama Consenting Adult based on Laura Z. Hobson 's novel” (Wikipedia)
• The Judy Garland Show by Judy Garland (1963). The Judy Garland Show (Judy Garland) — collaborator for Ray Aghayan “In 1963–64, Aghayan designed dresses and costumes for Judy Garland for her musical variety show on CBS.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Diana Ross: Diana! by Diana Ross (1971). Diana Ross: Diana! (Diana Ross) — collaborator for Ray Aghayan “However, the album's accompanying television special was nominated for three Emmy Awards and won two: Outstanding Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program (Ray Aghayan and Ret Turner) and Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Carol Burnett Show by Bob Mackie (1967). The Carol Burnett Show (Bob Mackie) — collaborator for Ray Aghayan “From the early 1960s until his death in 2011, Aghayan's partner was fashion designer Bob Mackie.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Gilda by Jean Louis (1946). Gilda (Jean Louis) — geography for Ray Aghayan
• West Side Story by Irene Sharaff (1961). West Side Story (Irene Sharaff) — geography for Ray Aghayan
• Rebel Without a Cause by Moss Mabry (1955). Rebel Without a Cause (Moss Mabry) — peer for Ray Aghayan
• Bonnie and Clyde by Theadora Van Runkle (1967). Bonnie and Clyde (Theadora Van Runkle) — peer for Ray Aghayan
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Donfeld (1969). They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Donfeld) — peer for Ray Aghayan
• Spartacus. Spartacus (Bill Thomas) — geography for Ray Aghayan

Who Ray Aghayan influenced

• RuPaul's Drag Race by Zaldy (2009). RuPaul's Drag Race (Zaldy) — legacy for Ray Aghayan
• The Masked Singer by Marina Toybina (2019). The Masked Singer (Marina Toybina) — legacy for Ray Aghayan