When an opportunity arose to write a book about the greatness of Cher, my biggest challenge was narrowing down the topics to cover. After all, she’s a decorated actress who (among other things) won an Oscar for her tough-but-tender performance in 1987’s “Moonstruck.” This honor came after she spent the ’70s starring in multiple TV shows and becoming a cultural icon due to a succession of fashion-forward Bob Mackie outfits. And these things don’t count her musical achievements: Cher’s now the only solo artist ever to earn a No. 1 hit on a Billboard chart for the last seven decades.
She’s achieved such success due to her tenacity and resilience. When you look at her career, Cher has reinvented herself over and over again, picking herself up after trauma or setbacks and pivoting in savvy ways. Her generosity also stands out; she does extensive charity work and is hands-on with philanthropic causes she champions. And she doesn’t know the meaning of resting on her laurels. When she decided to record and release 2023’s holiday-themed “Christmas,” she rang up her 96-year-old vocal coach, Adrienne Angel, and trained every day to get her voice in tip-top shape. In other words, Cher’s work ethic, ambition and confidence have ensured her status as a Goddess of Pop.
For some background on the below excerpt: Cher sported her most iconic outfit in the music video for 1989’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and continued to wear a variation on this look throughout her career. In fact, a stage-worn take on this outfit, which Cher rocked at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards while presenting an award to Lady Gaga — who happened to be wearing her famed meat dress at the time — sold for $115,200 in 2021. Just a few weeks ago, that same outfit sold at auction again for a whopping $162,500.
“I Got You Babe: A Celebration of Cher” (Courtesy of Running Press)
Cher dares to bare with her “If I Could Turn Back Time” outfit(s)
Her most controversial outfit became her signature look—and an enduring fashion inspiration.
Cher knows how to make an entrance. Case in point: the music video for her 1989 smash hit “If I Could Turn Back Time.” The clip, which was filmed on the USS Missouri, begins with footage of handsome Navy sailors waving their hats around and cheering wildly. A radiant Cher then emerges from the pack wearing a costume Bob Mackie later called “the seatbelt outfit”: a leather jacket thrown over a sheer fishnet body stocking with matching thigh-high tights and a leather G-string/thong that resembled a skimpy swimsuit. Later in the video, she turns around to reveal her bare backside, inked with a butterfly tattoo.
Cher was no stranger to wearing eye-catching outfits—but the combination of a tough leather jacket and the delicate lingerie hit a nerve. Although the Navy approved the video treatment in advance, it wasn’t thrilled with the final product. “There were some costume changes which, quite frankly, caught us by surprise,” said spokesperson, Lt. Bruce Cole. Darcy Meyers, a video production specialist with Geffen Records, had this to say in response: “We showed them the storyboards, and there’s one there where Cher’s wearing a jumpsuit and looks naked. It’s hard to tell what the Navy thought when they looked at that, but they never said anything.”
As it turns out, the outfit also ended up being too risqué for MTV. The channel programmed Cher’s video to appear between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. after hearing “a great deal of negative feedback” from viewers in response to daytime airings. Abbey Konowitch, MTV’s then–vice president for programming said, “The video has a little too much tush for a Saturday morning.” Cher wasn’t offended by the banishment; in fact, she clarified her fashion intentions with impeccable logic. “I wasn’t really looking to shock anybody out of their mind with that outfit,” she said. “It’s the same kind of stuff you can see on the beach. You don’t see anything more.”
Cher weathered any criticism, however: The skin-baring outfit became a signature look, one she visited time and time again. Unbothered by any controversy, she wore the outfit while performing “If I Could Turn Back Time” at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. A decade or so later, Bob Mackie designed a slightly different version of the look—“We call [it] her ‘Swiss cheese’ bodysuit,” he explained—for Cher’s early 2000s Farewell Tour: a shimmering black catsuit with mesh-backed cutouts (including a striking midriff-exposing one) studded with pink and white iridescent glass.
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Cher wore this outfit several more times, including at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards when she awarded Video of the Year to Lady Gaga. “So far I’m the oldest chick with the biggest hair and the littlest costume,” Cher quipped from the stage. “Back in the day, I used to get thrown off MTV for wearing things like that, which seems so tame now.” Indeed, Gaga accepted the honor while wearing a dress fashioned from raw meat.
Don’t call this exchange any sort of sartorial baton pass, however. A day after turning seventy-one, Cher dominated headlines from the 2017 Billboard Music Awards by wearing a nearly identical, Mackie-designed version of the outfit while performing “If I Could Turn Back Time.”
Excerpted from “I Got You Babe: A Celebration of Cher” by Annie Zaleski. Copyright © 2025. Available from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
