Media Coverage of the Stars and Tulle Dress

Arguably, though, Peters overshadowed the dress in the media coverage that followed her Tonys appearance. InStyle, People, and Page Six all published stories in the next week centering on the fact that Peters first wore the gown almost forty years earlier when she was photographed for the cover of Orange Coast in 1983.[1]

Peters posed in the dress again a few years later as part of a piece in Esquire called “Broadway Baby: An Autobiography in Pictures.” Following an elaborate collage of photos of the star throughout her storied career, there was a double page spread of Peters in the gown.[2]

According to Leigh Scheps, the last time Peters wore the dress in public was at the 10^th anniversary reunion concert of Into the Woods in 1997.[3]

Apparently, it was Mackie’s idea to bring the gown out of storage. Peters and Mackie already had a fitting scheduled at Tricorne Costumes in Manhattan because “he had just finished creating a new concert look for her upcoming engagements” and Mackie asked Peters’ assistant, Patty Saccente, to bring the stars and tulle dress along to the fitting.[4] The dress had been sitting neatly in a box in Peters’ apartment for years. (Mackie notes that “Bernadette takes very good care of all her performing dresses.”)[5] Mackie played up how few adjustments he needed to make to the gown: “It was just a couple of pins here, a pin there. A little fluff there. A couple days later it was ready to wear. It was nothing.”[6]