Bob Mackie helps Cher light up the Vegas stage
STYLE NOTEBOOK
Caesars Palace is all aglitter with the star and her 17-piece wardrobe.
LAS VEGAS — IT WAS a grand concert entrance if ever there was one -- Cher at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, descending from the ceiling like the empress of the sun. Her golden chariot might as well have been a time capsule, because when she stepped out in a blindingly sparkly gold lamé cape and an Egyptian headdress with an asp, she could have been 22 again. Or even 42. But Cher is 61, and she can still rock a Bob Mackie get-up like nobody else.
Her new show is an eyeful of deliciously glittery costumes that hark back to the wonderfully tacky, pre-Celine Vegas of Liberace and feather-flocked revues. She plays the gypsy in a jingling skirt, the sultan in genie pants that are little more than ropes of gold and crystal embroidery draped across her thighs, the Indian chief in a feathered headdress and 1960s-era Cher in a Mod red minidress. Through 17 costume changes, she shares and bares -- bellybutton, hips and butt cheeks.
With the possible exception of Victoria Beckham, they don't make style icons like Cher anymore. From the beginning of her career, when her stick-straight hair and bell-bottoms amounted to fringe fashion, she understood that cultivating a look was as important as cultivating a sound. Unlike today's stars, Cher wasn't a billboard for sale to the highest bidder. She was the world's Barbie doll, a living fashion fantasy week after week on TV, who landed simultaneously on best- and worst-dressed lists. Love her or hate her, she always keeps us guessing.
"She wears everything with such ease," says Mackie, her partner in sartorial success. "Not like a drag queen."
A few of the greatest Cher-Mackie wardrobe hits are on display in glass cases outside the theater, and it's amazing to see them up close. There's the Louis XIV corset from the 1999 "Believe" tour and the red Pocahontas outfit from the mid-1970s. The handiwork on these pieces rivals haute couture.
These days, Mackie spends most of his time designing his QVC line, but his Studio City workroom is still a fantasy land of buttons, trims and bolts of fabric. When Cher came to him earlier this spring, she had several characters in mind for the production, which sent him sketching.
He had just four weeks. The costumes were engineered more than designed, Mackie says. "It was like building a battleship with all the pieces and layers," he says. "It was full, long days and lots of nervousness."
