Editor’s Note: Look of the Week is a regular series where we highlight the most talked about outfits from the past seven days, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

CNN
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Madonna was everywhere at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards in New York — and she wasn’t even there.

On Wednesday night’s red carpet, Addison Rae and Anitta both wore bridal looks reminiscent of the “Like a Virgin” star’s performance at the very first VMAs nearly 40 years ago. But it was Artist of the Year nominee Sabrina Carpenter who took things one step further by nabbing a vintage gown from the Queen of Pop’s style archive.

Featuring a plunging V-neck and embellished with sequins, pearls and crystals, the white satin gown was designed — and later adapted for Madonna — by acclaimed fashion designer Bob Mackie. She famously wore it to the 1991 Oscars, which she attended with Michael Jackson before singing “Sooner or Later,” a song from the film “Dick Tracy.”

And if the strapless look exuded the glamour of old Hollywood, it’s probably because Madonna herself wore it as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe.

The dress was an edited version of one Madonna had previously appeared in for a Vanity Fair cover shoot with photographer Steven Meisel. Mackie, 84, acknowledged Carpenter’s tribute and shared the story on his official Instagram account Wednesday night.

“Maria Schiavo, a well-known fashion stylist, borrowed my sample of this dress for a Madonna cover shoot for Vanity Fair,” Mackie recalls. “Less than a week later, Madonna herself called and asked for her own version of the dress for the 1991 Academy Awards.”

He also noted that the Queen of Pop later wore the form-fitting dress in the pages of her controversial and wildly popular 1992 coffee table book, “Sex.” The dress was subsequently worn by Fran Drescher on a 1994 episode of “The Nanny.”

Mackie has designed red carpet looks for some of the 20th century’s biggest stars, including Monroe, Diana Ross, and Cher, for whom he crafted the iconic towering headdress he wore to the 1986 Oscars. Dresses from his archive have made a comeback in recent years, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Katy Perry, Zendaya, and Miley Cyrus all seen donning pieces from his archive on the red carpet. Kim Kardashian also controversially wore a dress Mackie sketched for Marilyn Monroe to the 2022 Met Gala (a wardrobe choice Mackie called a “huge mistake,” telling Entertainment Weekly at the time, “It was designed for (Monroe). No one else should be seen in that dress.”)

Carpenter’s stylist, Jared Ellner, said on Instagram that he purchased Madonna’s dress through LA vintage clothing studio, Tab Vintage. He accessorized her look with a diamond necklace and other jewelry from De Beers.

Alexis Novak, the founder of Tab Vintage, told Vogue that Ellner and Carpenter approached her with a “really incredible mood board.” She added, “We sent them a deck of pieces that we had along those lines and we’re so happy with what they decided on!”

It was a big night for Carpenter, who was nominated for seven awards in a groundbreaking year that saw her top the US Billboard 200 album chart for the first time.

After her spectacular arrival on the red carpet, she performed a medley of her hits “Espresso” (which later won the VMA for Song of the Year), “Please Please Please” and “Taste.”

At the time, she had undergone a costume change, trading in her vintage Mackie gown for a corseted bodysuit designed by Victoria’s Secret. But her onstage outfit, which took more than 180 hours to create and featured 18,500 hand-applied crystal beads, was very much in keeping with its glittering predecessor.

And Carpenter wasn’t done with the Madonna references. Unless, of course, the kiss she shared with a dancer in an alien costume was merely coincidentally similar to the star’s embrace with Britney Spears at the 2003 VMAs (though the earlier reference in her performance to “Oops!… I Did It Again” suggested that Carpenter may have been playing Spears’ part at the time).