Designer belittles ‘hoochie mamas’

Women dress so wild on the Vegas Strip they look like "hoochie mamas," says Bob Mackie -- the fashion designer who once famously dressed Cher in loincloth, chainlink top and Mohawk headdress.

The legendary designer was back in Vegas on Saturday for Cher's first sold-out show at Caesars Colosseum. He designed new outfits, including a 1940s zoot suit (for which Cher wears a mustache), and a Cher-esque glam gown for a new "Believe" finale.

Before showtime, Mackie was showing me drawings for the outfits, when I asked what he thought about how people dress on the Strip.

"You just can't believe your eyes," he says. "They can look as bad as possible, or as hoochie mama as possible. I just look and go, 'Oh my god, look at that!' Things are hanging out, and bulging out. It's just amazing."

For one thing, women shouldn't wear "hip-hugging tight-tight pants," especially if their overweight midriffs are showing, he says.

I told him these were funny comments coming from the man who has dressed Cher in vibrant costumes for decades.

"You can't blame a performer for her fashion sense on stage. That's a whole other thing. That's just like a character that's been established. If you see Cher in everyday life, she wears jeans, a cowboy hat and a jacket."

Mackie, 69, says American fashion soured in the late 1960s, when women went from having two fine choices -- a casual look and "good" clothes -- to facing stores selling skirts that went "clear up to their crotch."

"Every woman over 40 started wearing pants every day, because they couldn't walk around every day with everything hanging out."

I told him my Captain Obvious theory, that Madonna's fashions later made it desirable for women to "look like whores."

"Well, it did," he agrees. "There was a time in the '80s when looking really slutty became so popular that it became OK. That sort of opened the door to look OK in a lot of bad clothes, a lot of awful-looking things."

Years later, Christina Aguilera influenced women when she "had her really whore-y period there, where it just couldn't be sleazy enough."

He bemoans the T-shirt and jeans generation. But he has hope in fashion. Dresses and better tops have come back. He offers two tips for all of us:

• "Have a full length mirror, and take a good look quite often, because most people don't."

• "Buy clothes the right size. Most women don't buy clothes the right size. That's why the numbers on clothes have changed over the years. What used to be a 12 in the old days is really like a 6," he says. "Women don't want to be a real size 14. They want to be a 10."

You can buy good clothes anywhere, says Mackie, who sells clothes on QVC.

"You can go to Wal-Mart and find a shirt," he says. "If you have great style of your own, and you know yourself, and you know what's good on you, you can shop anywhere. Keep your eyes open for what looks good on you."

He says we shouldn't overemphasize style.

"It doesn't matter how you look if you're doing a good job in whatever you're doing. I don't think people should worry about clothes" much, he says.

"But when I see people looking hideous, maybe we should worry about it a little more."

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Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.