Cher’s Wild 1986 Oscars Revenge Gown Was a Spiteful Inspiration
No one knows how to pay back a snub quite like Cher. In 1986, the Goddess of Pop showed up to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the 58th Academy Awards dressed in what would become one of the most recognizable gowns in Oscars history and stole the show in the process—proving, as she would two years later when she won Best Actress for Moonstruck, that the Academy should not have underestimated her. It was a rock star move.
Cher knew exactly what everyone at the 1986 Oscars would think when she walked into that room; she was counting on it. She’d already shown up on multiple occasions wearing midriff-bearing gowns, and her Met Gala “naked dress” was years behind her. The thing was that by then, she not only didn’t care but was even itching for a fight. As she would tell Film Comment in 1988, Cher knew that her stunt wouldn’t win her any friends in the Academy. “But that’s just always going to be me, it’s going to be the way I do stuff because I just have a hard time with authority.” Honestly? Relatable.
In Mask, Cher plays the mother of a teenager living with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia—a rare genetic disorder that affects the shape of one’s skull. The film received largely positive reviews when it debuted, including for Cher herself, who wound up winning best actress at Cannes. So when the Academy declined to nominate her, the multi-hyphenate got her vengeance through fashion. Her partner in crime? Bob Mackie, the designer of her famous “naked dress,” who on this occasion designed a revenge gown for the books—a translucent beaded garment that once again showed off Cher’s belly button and came with a huge feather headdress to boot.