Back in ’91, Madonna paired the gown with a white fur stole and a fellow pop superstar as her date: Michael Jackson.
Left: Madonna in a Bob Mackie dress at the 1991 Academy Awards. Right. Sabrina Carpenter at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images; Gilbert Flores for Billboard
Sabrina Carpenter brought true Hollywood glamour to the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards red carpet by wearing the actual Bob Mackie gown Madonna wore to the 1991 Oscars.
According to Vogue, Carpenter and her stylist were hunting for a Madonna moment for the awards show and found what they were looking for with archival fashion dealer Tab Vintage. The silver Mackie dress “was originally designed for Madonna to wear to perform at the Academy Awards,” Tab Vintage’s Alexis Novak told Vogue. “It was inspired by Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and made headlines when she wore it.”
Back in 1991, Madonna paired the gown with a white fur stole and, in addition to her old-Hollywood style, the Queen of Pop also made headlines that night for her choice of date: fellow pop superstar Michael Jackson. In a previous interview, Madonna said of the A-list team-up: “Michael was like, ‘Well who are you gonna go with?’ I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t know. You wanna go?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’” During her Carpool Karaoke segment with James Corden in 2018, Madonna looked back on the night as her “best date ever.”
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Carpenter kept the night’s silver and sparkly theme going when she hit the stage later in the night, opting for a silver sequin leotard to perform a medley of the first three singles from her Billboard 200 No. 1 album Short N’ Sweet: “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste.”
See Carpenter’s full look below:
