I Lived Like Madonna for a Day

Because 1985 is the 'Desperately Seeking Susan' star's year.

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1985 is Madonna's year: After making waves with her performance of "Like a Virgin" at last year's VMAs, the singer has delivered an award-worthy performance in the spring hit Desperately Seeking Susan, landed herself on the cover of multiple big-time mags, including this month's issue of Playboy, and is engaged to super hunk and Fast Times at Ridgemont High star Sean Penn. Ladies and gentlemen, 1985 is Madonna's year.

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To celebrate the most exciting new face on the scene, I decided to dress like the up-and-coming star—specifically, in her "Like a Virgin" outfit.

The first step was procuring the look. Madonna worked with Marisol on the costume, which she wore for both her VMA performance and the "Like a Virgin" album cover. The tulle skirt, the corseted top, the undergarments (which were "accidentally" exposed during the VMAs), the "Boy Toy" belt, the lace gloves, the necklaces upon necklaces upon necklaces—Madonna made quite a statement with her getup. In 30 years people will probably be wearing aluminum space suits under their leg warmers and they'll still be talking about this dramatic look.

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For my own version of the outfit, ELLE.com senior fashion editor Nikki Ogunnaike found me a tulle skirt from Betsey Johnson—the designer who just dressed Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald in Harper's Bazaar's September issue. Since I'm not quite a runway model (I've been slacking on my Jane Fonda), the skirt was tight. "Tight?" You might say. "But Sally, it's tulle!" Why yes, yes it is, but there is only so much tulle to go around...and it appears there is so much more of my body than tulle. (Just kidding, not SO MUCH, but enough much that there is a sizable, awkward, "oh look, there are your undies" gap.)

Since my cups runneth over the runway cups that came with Betsey Johnson's look, we opted for a more bust-friendly Panache Black bustier that contained things better. Which apparently was a problem for Madonna, too. "At the rehearsal, I'm sitting about 10 rows back, watching her roll around in that dress, and her boob fell out," VJ Alan Hunter remembers of the VMAs look. "And we all went, did you see what I saw?" Well, I wasn't about to let any of my coworkers see anything worth seeing. Except, of course, me in this insane look.

When I appeared wearing my full getup, the ELLE.com team was...excited. (They kind of revel in my humiliation. It's fine.) Though they knew what I was doing, they recognized the outfit immediately—everyone else? Not so much. "Are you getting married?" One older man asked me as I walked to the subway. "Nice wedding dress!" A doorman called as I passed by. I made a great effort at gathering my skirt (sheer skirt. Sheer. It's tulle, people. It's basically not even there...) together and holding it closed in front of me to hide my short shorts-slash-underwear.

A group of people on a tour bus waved at me. A lot of people took my picture. Some strangers nodded appreciatively, to signal that they got it—well they didn't get it because why the hell am I dressed like Madonna? But, you know, they got what I was going for. It was embarrassing. But it was also hot—incredibly hot in fact. Not only did I choose to tie, hook, and sausage myself into layers of polyester, nylon, and tulle, but I decided to do it on a day when it was 96 degrees out. There was back sweat. There was front sweat. There was hair sweat. The sweat had sweat. But as a performer, sweat is something Madonna is familiar with.

Elizabeth Griffin

According to the singer's good friend and makeup artist Debi Mazar, who does her beauty look on tour, Madonna wears special products that will stay on through a performance. "My only issue was trying to keep the makeup on her, so I tended to use a lot of creams because of the sweat factor," Mazar explains in an interview. "All those new ingredients like luminizers and silicones slip off—they look great when you're just sitting around, but on stage the makeup actually needs to hold on. So I used products that wouldn't fall off the face. I used pan stick on her skin, liquid liner to define her eyes, and I would rub lipstick on her cheeks to give them color." She said her go-to products were Maybelline "things that cost two bucks but performed great," so I too went with lipstick, eyeliner, and a lipstick-like cream blush from the brand.

As for hair? Well, Mazar says Madonna prefers to wear it greasy. "She had wild hair; it was natural with highlights and it was all crazy and greasy. She liked that look," she says. I, however, do not. To achieve said greasiness, I kept thing au natural—I didn't shampoo for three days. I felt revolting. I have thin hair—or what my hairdressers, who have been correcting me for years, delicately call "fine"—and usually shampoo every other day if not every day. It may not be the best thing for my hair health, but I hate the feel of oily hair. But anything for Madonna, right?

Getty/Elizabeth Griffin

Riiiiight. But 96 degrees. You all might be looking at those photos and thinking 'She looks hotter than Don Johnson in Miami Vice' (because hello, they're in Miami, aren't they a little warm in those suits?) and you would be right. After half an hour outside, my hair was deflated—the grease was no longer supporting a "wild" voluminous 'do, but rather cementing the hair to my head—and I was covered in an unsexy sheen...and don't even get me started about what it was like on the subway platform.

So, was it fun? Well, it wasn't comfortable. Besides the heat, it was all very restricting. As Madonna explains in her recent Spin magazine cover story, corseted items are not worn to make you feel good—but they do look good:

On my Like A Virgin record cover and in all my photographs, like when i did the MTV show, I'm in my bustier. Bustiers are very restricting. They have ribs that make you feel like you're suffocating and zip up the back. They're tight and squeeze you in. I wear them because they're very 19th centuryish. They have that really svelte look. I like the way it makes my body look. It's very sexual. I have about five of them. I go to a regular lingerie store and get the basic nylon bustier, with no frills, and have it customized with lace or tulle. I wish I was flat-chested and didn't have to wear a bra. It's one extra piece of clothing to worry about.

I feel you, sister. And while I didn't feel very sexual, I bet many of my new friends on the street thought differently. I mostly felt silly—especially doing my more normal daily activities.

Elizabeth Griffin

But FUN? Well...yes, it was fun. Madonna wanted attention and well, she certainly got it—I can't imagine there will ever be another VMA performance quite as scandalous and talked-about as "Like a Virgin."

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And I also got a lot of attention—and while I usually don't seek out the spotlight or the eyeballs, it was exciting, for one day, to embody someone else and do some things that are more outrageous than I normally would. To really embrace my inner Madonna.

Elizabeth Griffin

Because why the hell not?

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