Cher’s bold fashion once ‘shocked’ Academy people
Cher is outspoken about her views. Similarly, she channelled this in her fashion choice when she “horrified” the attendees of the Academy Awards in 1986.
Recalling the unforgettable incident, famed fashion designer Bob Mackie recalled her bold outfit in her documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion.
“Because I didn’t get nominated for a movie that everyone thought I would actually win [Mask], but I didn’t get nominated, and they thought I wasn’t serious,” the Grammy winner explained why she opted for such a dress.
“I didn’t dress like a serious actress, and I had… my boyfriends were strange. So I decided, I had this idea in my mind,” she added.
The popular costumier remembered, “She said, ‘I’m giving out this award, and they haven’t seen me look like I used to look.'”
“Because she had been making movies and these movies where she was playing kind of down and dirty characters. Silkwood and you know, she wasn’t glamorous, so they hadn’t seen her get all dressed up.”
Bob explained his process for the dress to Cher, “To get dressed up didn’t mean her putting on a pretty dress. It meant, you know, a good outfit. And I had my sketch pad, so I started drawing.”
“And I drew a little bit because I knew I probably wouldn’t see her for a month or so, so I had to get it all moving.”
The Believe singer shared that she asked for “big feathers” in the dress, adding, “I said, ‘I just want—,’ and he said, ‘Don’t say anything else.’ We had a short time with each other, too.”
To which the designer recalled saying, “I said, ‘Should it have a loin cloth?’ And she replied, ‘Ooh yeah, I want a loin cloth.'”
“I was coming around and Jane Fonda was coming around, and she looked at me and said, ‘Cher, please wait until I get back to my seat, okay, before you come out. Please, I can’t wait. I want to see everybody’s reaction,’ “the 78-year-old recalled who two years later went on to win an Oscar for Moonstruck.
“And I walked out and I said, ‘As you can see, I did receive my academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress,” Cher continued.
“And it was kind of my, you know, my you-know-what moment… My ‘**** you’ moment to the Academy because, you know, all you have to judge me on is my work, not my life.”
Bob, however, reported a less-than-exhilarating reaction from the audience at the hall when she presented the award for best-supporting actor.
“When she first appeared at the Oscars with her big mohawk and her bare midriff, giving an award to [Cocoon star] Don Ameche, people were horrified. Like, ‘That’s not fashion.’ They were just horrified,” he recalled.