Great Outfits in Fashion History: Cher’s Checkerboard-Print Pants
Sonny and Cher at their home in California in 1966.
Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
There are perfectly good celebrity style moments, and then there are the looks that really stick with you, the ones you try desperately to recreate at home. In ‘Great Outfits in Fashion History,’ Fashionista editors are revisiting their all-time favorite lewks.
Decades before we were introduced to Cher Horowitz’s bright yellow plaid skirt in “Clueless,” the mononymous Cher shared her own take on bold patterned bottoms with the world.
The year was 1966. Though sequins would later define Cher’s superstar look, there were none to be found in this specific outfit. Rather, the singer wore a more traditional, relatable outfit: a cozy knit and jeans. But before you put her in the “Stars: they’re just like us!” category, Cher’s pants were covered in a checkerboard-print, making for some expert pattern play at work with the colorful horizontal stripes of her top.
The print, long a staple of Vans sneakers, has quickly become a feed-favorite among influencers — both in terms of home decor (think rugs) and fashion. I’ve personally incorporated it into my wardrobe with socks and sweaters, but this 55-year-old outfit has me wanting to fully lean into the trend and turn my bottom half into a chessboard and my top half in to a cable-knit rainbow.
Ahead, shop checkerboard-print pants and striped pullovers that a channel a casual Cher in the ’60s.
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