If the outfits worn by the actresses in The Cher Show look familiar it’s because they are recreations of the sometimes outrageous costumes the actress-singer has worn throughout her career.
And if those replicas look like dead ringers for the original outfits, down to the last sequin, it’s because they were re-created by the original designer: Bob Mackie.
Mackie took home a Tony® for his designs for The Cher Show, which will be presented Jan. 14-19 in Morsani Hall.
Many celebrities have their favored designers, but few pairings are as well known as Cher and Mackie.
Mackie already had designed outfits for Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe before he met Cher in 1967. Sonny & Cher, the duo of Cher and first husband Sonny Bono, were guests on The Carol Burnett Show (Burnett is another long-time Mackie client).
It was a match made in fashion heaven. Working with Cher spawned some of Mackie’s most memorable and sometimes controversial creations.
One eyebrow-raiser was what came to be known as the nude dress, or as Mackie refers to it, “the nude illusion gown.” Mackie used an ultra-sheer fabric (which has since been banned for being highly flammable) festooned with feathers and sequins.
Cher first wore it, accompanied by Mackie, to the 1974 Met Gala. It gained far more notice in 1975, though, when Time magazine used a Richard Avedon photo of Cher posing in the dress on its cover. The photo sent shop owners and school librarians into a tizzy, trying to keep the risqué cover hidden from a public that was either outraged or transfixed by it.
Mackie is less thrilled with one of his other most familiar creations for Cher, the sheer black outfit from Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” video. Only a few strips of fabric kept Cher within the barely acceptable zone for MTV, which only aired the music video after 9 p.m.
Mackie refers to it disparagingly as the “seat belt” costume and dismisses it as “vulgar.” He is supposed to have insisted Cher tell no one that he designed it.
Cher has worn other designers’ works, and Mackie has designed for many superstar clients – Elton John’s bedazzled Los Angeles Dodgers’ uniform, which the singer wore at his 1975 Dodger Stadium concert, is an audacious highlight.
But the two will be forever joined in fashion history – a designer with a taste for the bold and a performer who doesn’t mind a bit of outrageousness – or even outrage.