It’s been nearly 50 years since Mary Tyler Moore’s green dress shocked viewers on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” But what was created as a punch line, in the 1975 episode “You Try to Be a Nice Guy” — where Moore encourages a former sex worker to branch out into fashion design — has enduring appeal.
Today marks what would have been Moore’s 88th birthday — she passed away in 2017 from cardiopulmonary arrest after contracting pneumonia — and ahead of her birthday, Google searches for Moore’s green dress spiked. There are ample search results for the green dress on social media, where users on TikTok and Twitter continue to share and discuss the dress decades after its debut. Even half a century after it premiered, the dress still feels current.
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That’s because the dress was ahead of its time. The amount of skin it showed was bold in 1975, when the boundaries of women’s fashion — in real-life, the workplace, and on TV — were shifting. “She designed it especially for me,” Moore says in the episode of the dress, to which Ted Baxter demands his wife Georgette gets him a glass of water. “It’s very nice,” Georgette says in passing to Moore, adding, “It sure shows off your skin.”
The clothes were a main character on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and the green dress was a star. Moore’s show was not only feminist in narrative, it was also feminist in fashion — using her wardrobe as a vehicle to model how women didn’t have to adhere to older societal norms, and could blaze their own paths in the workplace.
Moore’s wardrobe was also rooted in realism, which was novel for TV. Costume designer Leslie Hall, who has shaped the visual identity of “Bewitched,” had Moore repeating outfits and creating new ones from mixing pieces, which had never been done before on TV. Hall also secured the first fashion product placement for TV, lining up an exclusive partnership with Evan Picone, which outfitted Moore throughout the seasons and setting the stage for all of the fashion placement partnerships on TV that followed.
As for the green dress, it has continued to live on beyond “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — and set the stage for iconoclastic dresses to come. The ladder-like cutouts bring to mine the Versace safety pin dress Elizabeth Hurley famously wore in 1994 alongside Hugh Grant at the premiere of “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
The idea of a revealing green dress turning a cultural page also conjures another unforgettable Versace moment: Jennifer Lopez’s plunging, high-slit silk chiffon dress she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards — the very one that inspired Google Images.
Meanwhile cutout dresses were one of the biggest style takeaways from 2023 and, this year, 2024. Last year labels like Celine, Alexander McQueen, Gucci and many more outfitted stars in whimsical cutout gowns, from Dua Lipa and Hunter Schafer to Cardi B and Vanessa Hudgens. This year, Tyla and Lourdes both embraced the cutout trend, among many other celebrities. Not to mention, cutouts were a breakout trend at the 2024 ESPY Awards.
Below, take a look at some of Moore’s other top style moments.
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Launch Gallery: Mary Tyler Moore’s Style Moments Through the Years: From the Green Dress to Pantsuits and Gowns [PHOTOS]
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