One of Cher's most iconic fashion moments was wearing a barely there outfit in the video for her 1989 hit "If I Could Turn Back Time." But the man who designed that outfit, Bob Mackie, now says he wishes he could turn back time himself, because he found it embarrassing.
According to Yahoo Entertainment, in the new documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion, the legendary designer calls the getup — a sheer, thigh-length body stocking in which Cher's naughty bits were covered by two thin strips of fabric in front and one strip in the back — the "seatbelt outfit." He also refers to it as "vulgar."
In an interview, Mackie tells Yahoo Entertainment, "She wanted to wear that. Bicycle pants were in, but see-through bicycle pants are really scary. I said, ‘Please don't tell anyone that I designed this. Don't let anyone know this. I'm embarrassed,’ and she was fine about it. Now she admits that, no, it wasn't so good.”
Mackie was also disgusted by the fact that Cher had her then-13-year-old son Elijah Blue Allman play guitar in the video, which was filmed aboard a Navy warship "with all these horny sailors on deck.” He adds, "I mean … you go: Ugh. And, of course, it played forever, and we're still seeing it.”
"Nobody else could get away with it, let me tell you,” Mackie notes. “Who has a figure like that really — and a look that nobody else has?”
At the time, the video was so controversial that MTV wouldn't air it before 9 p.m.