Remember the days when a star like Cher would dare to wear an outrageous outfit to the Academy Awards?

In this era of celebrity designers and stylists, this kind of individuality has all but vanished and this troubles Bob Mackie, the man who is behind most of Cher’s most memorable red carpet ensembles.

“The stylists make everybody look alike sometimes,” Bob told me when we chatted this week at the 10th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards.

He’s also appalled that many actresses have become walking advertisements for everything from gowns to jewelry to shoes.

“I hate it,” he said. “I think it’s very low class for an actress who makes that much money, who’s a serious actress, to come on and start giving all these people plugs. There’s something very kinda tacky about the whole thing.”

It was so much simpler back in 1988 when he designed the very risque outfit Cher wore the night she won the best actress Oscar for “Moonstruck.”

“She’s Cher!” he said. “I’ve known her over 40 years and we worked together over and over and over again so it’s kind of like family.

These days, Bob is keeping busy with his clothing line sold on QVC which offers affordable designer duds to viewers. He operates at a much less frenetic pace than he did in the 70s when he not only designed for Cher’s variety shows with and without Sonny, but also for “The Carol Burnett Show.”

“I used to run through the men’s room to get from one studio to the other,” he remembered. “It was really fun at the time. When I think about it now, I wonder how we ever did it, the amount of shows we would do in one week.”

Bob seems to have mixed feelings about the memorable gown he designed for Burnett for a classic “Gone With the Wind” spoof. Burnett, as Scarlett O’Hara, comes down the stairs in a gown made from the drapes - complete with curtain rod still in place.

“The curtain rod dress is the one everybody talks about,” he said. “Either that or a crazy get-up Cher wears. But, you know, I’ve done a lot of other things too.”