An explosive performer who spent over six decades in the spotlight, Tina Turner had an immeasurable effect on pop culture. She established enduring signatures over the course of her shape-shifting and self-determined career, including, but certainly not limited to, inventive wigs, knockout dance numbers, and a voice overflowing with soul. But perhaps the greatest encapsulation of Turner’s divadom was her wardrobe that included leg-baring pieces crafted by Bob Mackie, Azzedine Alaïa, Versace, and, at times, Turner herself. Turner, who died last month at the age of 83, was a style maven even in the last stages of her life—in April 2018 she attended the premiere of a jukebox musical based on her life in a dazzling semi-sheer crystal number. In a new “Life in Looks” video, Vogue.com editor Chioma Nnadi walks through some of the most memorable looks that the “What’s Love Got To Do With It” singer wore over the course of her life.
Turner’s enthusiastic and experimental play with fashion first began as one-half of Ike and Tina Turner. A photograph, taken in 1964, captures the star shortly after a performance at The Skyliner Ballroom, wearing a knee-length shift dress that was likely picked out by her husband, Ike Turner. In later years, Turner would reveal this period of her life was particularly troubled—she accused Ike of physical and emotional abuse and controlling almost every facet of her career and image. “You saw her come out of her relationship with Ike as this very empowered woman who is completely at ease with showing skin,” Nnadi says in the video.
A little over a decade later, we’d see Turner on her own terms. She appeared on The Cher Show in 1975 wearing a Vegas-flavored, high-slit sequin dress designed by Bob Mackie. The outfit was the burgeoning start of what would prove to be an iconic designer-superstar relationship over the years. “Bob was really intentional about how he paired them,” Nnadi explains. “He understood that Tina needed to show her legs and you can see how he highlighted Cher’s abs.”
A little known fact: In the 1970s, Turner made a regular practice of buying off-the-rack dresses in Paris and, later, slicing-and-dicing them into stage-ready looks in collaboration with Bob Mackie. The practice was one borne of necessity. “Because she actually at that time didn’t have the money to commission original pieces,” Nnadi says.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
