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Carmen Electra is synonymous with the glitzed-up skimpy looks of the late ’90s and 2000s. While perhaps best known today for her roles in Baywatch and blockbuster hits like Scary Movie (2000), the perpetually smoky-eyed bombshell left her hometown in Ohio for Los Angeles with few expectations. “I just came here to be a dancer,” says Electra via phone. “Not even in front, just a backup dancer.” She went on to meet Prince, who promoted her solo singing career, leading to her 1993 self-titled album. A television and film career, along with celebrity, followed quickly behind. While she had legions of fans, Electra’s bold, barely-there clothes made her a perennial presence on “Worst Dressed” lists.
Twenty years later, Electra’s style has come full circle. Celebrities ranging from Nicki Minaj to Kendall Jenner are delving into the glammed-out noughties barely-there looks. “I once wore a dress that had little metal pieces going all they way down the side so you couldn’t really wear panties underneath but it would show the entire side of your body. I remember that I wore that to the MTV Awards and that was kind of made into a big deal,” says Electra. “People just thought it was too much but it is crazy because I just saw an article of Kylie Jenner and they [the publication] had a picture of me in that dress that I got so much flak for!” Turns out, Electra has paved a bit of the way for celebrity red carpet dressing today.
Her television debut on the show Soul Train in the early ’90s was head-turning
“I remember exactly what I was wearing [to Soul Train]: a white bolero jacket with shoulder pads and sort of like a bustier top. I would always put clips on the jacket to make it tighter in the back and use that to hold up everything,” says Electra. “I had white stockings and white hot pants and a little clip holding the stocking up to the hot pants and these white leather boots that went over the knee.”
According to Electra, Prince loved hot pants
“When I ended up meeting Prince and coming to Minneapolis and started recording my self-titled album with him, he loved the clothes I had, which were hot pants. He just thought that was a cool look. In all my videos, from the very first video, I had red hot pants, a red bra top, red matching gloves and cat glasses—not with real diamonds—but little fake diamonds, cubic zirconias,” says Electra. “The looks that really inspired me from Prince which became my sort of signature were combat boots. I would always dance and perform in combat boots with hot pants and little bra tops or something like that.”
She didn’t always have the cash to spend on clothes when she first came to Los Angeles
“I didn’t have a lot of money so I would just go to the ATM and go to this store on Melrose and they would custom-make anything,” she says. “I would just go in there and buy an outfit and that would kind of be my outfit for a minute to go out in.”
Electra’s wild looks gave her a leg up in Hollywood
“I wouldn’t be invited to a premiere but because of a crazy outfit, photographers would just start shooting. So they’d walk me down the red carpet and I’d just walk right in. I started getting press on being on the ‘Worst Dressed’ list,” says Electra. “Then we turned it all around and then I started getting on the ‘Best Dressed’ list. It was kind of smart.”
The most precious pieces of clothing in her wardrobe have sentimental meaning
“[I would take something] from Prince and Dave [Navarro], probably two of the most meaningful relationships I’ve had. We [Dave and I] had the same Duarte rocker pants with lace-up in the front,” she says. “I also have a coat from Prince that I love that says ’91 on the back.”
On the epic naked dress that she wore to the MTV Awards in 1998
“I think Stephen Sprouse designed it. The dress was long and white and the top was really, really small with the sides cut out and it was very low in the back. It had a clear strap holding [it] on. It was a mystery as to how this dress stayed on. My boobs were kind of pouring out of the dress and I literally was on every ‘Worst Dressed’ list in that dress,” she says. “But I was looking at it [recently] and I was like, ‘It’s so covered today.’ In the ’90s, it was really hard [if] you wanted to wear sexy clothes. Of course you do in your twenties and thirties.”