Dove Cameron Channels Cher for PEOPLE's World's Most Beautiful Issue: 'Quickest Yes I've Ever Said' (Exclusive)

Rachel DeSantisTue, April 21, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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Dove Cameron Channels Cher for PEOPLE's World's Most Beautiful Issue: 'Quickest Yes I've Ever Said' (Exclusive)

It’s one thing to make your mark on pop culture as a successful musician. It’s another to do so as a critically acclaimed actress. Add “beloved TV star” into the mix, and nailing all three becomes basically an impossible task — unless, of course, you’re Cher.

The legendary star tossed the celebrity blueprint out the window when she parlayed her '60s music career (with hits such as "I've Got You Babe") into television stardom in the '70s (The Sonny & Cher Show) and then Oscar-winning movie roles (Moonstruck) in the '80s, all while creating pop hits and setting style trends well into the new century.

So it makes perfect sense that Dove Cameron—an actress and singer with killer fashion sense who also got her start on television—would jump at the chance to take on one of Cher’s legendarily glam looks for PEOPLE’s World’s Most Beautiful issue.

Dove Cameron wearing a Bob Mackie–inspired bra and skirt, recreated by Marc Eram and Rio Warner. Vintage shoes and jewelry.Credit: Leeor Wild

“It was the quickest yes I've ever said. I was like, ‘That’s my blood,’” Cameron, 30, says of locking in to pay homage to Cher, who will turn 80 next month. “Her artistry is pretty intrinsically linked to who she is as a person, and I love who she is as a person. I love her strength.”

Cameron's transformation started with (what else?) a sequined look, first seen in 1975 on Cher, then 28, who wore the Bob Mackie original on the ninth episode of the first season of her CBS variety show Cher. The show had hit the air in the wake of her divorce from husband Sonny Bono, and featured Cher living her best life in outfits like this one, a stunning deep purple two-piece with glittery gold fringe and embellishments, complete with a feathered purple jacket.

“I’m never this outlandish in what I wear, so I put this on and I’m like, ‘Ooh,’” says the 56 Days star. “It’s so dramatic. It’s so fun. It’s so theatrical.”

Kale Teter, Cameron’s makeup artist, says he noticed Cher’s use of color on color and incorporated a “wash of shimmery purple” eyeshadow, while her hairstylist Jacob Rozenberg completed the look with lots and lots of long, dark hair.

Left: Cher on the April 13, 1975 episode of 'Cher.' Right: Dove Cameron in a Bob Mackie-inspired look by Marc Eram and Rio Warner.Credit: YouTube; Leeor Wild

While the number of iconic looks from Cher rivals the number of stars in the sky, Cameron’s stylist Marc Eram liked this one because it incorporated many of Cher's signatures into one sexy package.

“It just feels like so many worlds coming together. It felt like we’re hitting one big nail on the head,” says Eram, who recreated the look just days before the shoot. “Dove and I love a costume, and I can’t do a costume without it being like, exact to a T. I’ll lose sleep over it, and she’s equally as passionate. So when this came up, we were like, ‘We really need to nail it.’ I think unless you’re doing it perfectly, you’re not doing it at all.”

Dove Cameron wearing a Bob Mackie–inspired bra and skirt, recreated by Marc Eram and Rio Warner. Vintage shoes and jewelry.Credit: Leeor Wild

Eram knew Cameron would be down to step into Cher's sequins thanks to their close working relationship. He met the star years ago on a project, and the two reconnected just over a year ago. Since then, they’ve been working together full time, which he says is a treat.

“Dove is so much fun; she’s the dream client. Everything looks perfect on her. But aside from that, she is so creative herself and loves to explore different worlds, whether it be music, acting — there’s so many different things that we get to do,” he says. “Dove always brings her own personality to everything, so her putting this on is her spin on Cher while still remaining true to the legend herself.”

Cher first hit Cameron’s radar as a child, when she’d watch her family’s VHS copy of 1987's Moonstruck. When Burlesque hit theaters in 2010, Cameron was “obsessed,” and she eventually learned more about Cher’s music around age 13. The 1974 album Dark Lady remains a favorite.

“She taught me that anything is possible. She was one of the original artists that was able to do both [singing and acting] successfully. Growing up in the industry, they always tell you to pick one. Cher was a pioneer in that way. I find that incredibly inspiring,” says Cameron. “I guess what I’ve learned is just that you can’t let anyone pigeonhole you.”

Cameron knows something about that herself. After getting her start on Disney Channel on the comedy series Liv and Maddie and later the film franchise Descendants, she released her debut EP in 2023. In February, she starred in the Prime Video thriller 56 Days, and teases a new album is coming within the next six months. She says the record — her first full-length LP — marks the first time that something she’s created “is an embodiment of the whole of the person who I am.”

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As she readies the project, she’s focused on staying healthy amid a jam-packed schedule that doesn’t always lend itself to routine. Cameron says she’s recently untangled her wacky work hours and is sticking to a six-days-a-week program, and also finds relief in drinking beet juice, three liters of water a day, applying heavy moisturizer “so thick it’s like pancake batter," and doing a foam roller in the morning.

Then, of course, there’s the support of her fiancé, Måneskin frontman Damiano David. She and David, 27, announced their engagement in January after more than two years of dating.

“My partner makes me feel beautiful in ways that I never had before. Things that I used to hate about myself, he’s like, ‘That’s one of the most beautiful things about you,’” she says.

Dove Cameron wearing a Bob Mackie–inspired bra and skirt, recreated by Marc Eram and Rio Warner. Vintage shoes and jewelry.Credit: Leeor Wild

“My body was a huge thing when I was younger. I was brainwashed into thinking that there was one way for a female body to look that was acceptable, and it really warped my perception of myself. I’ve been very outspoken about my issues with eating disorders and things like that. And he has been nothing short of a miracle in that sense," she continues. "I feel my most beautiful with him when I am healthy and in my sweats and in no makeup and I just woke up. He makes a big difference, because when someone actually loves you, they want you to be healthy and they love you no matter what.”

Cameron celebrated the big 3-0 in January, but hasn’t given her new decade too much thought, except to acknowledge that she’s finally at a point in her life where she fully trusts herself and her decisions.

“I think the beautiful thing about my life is that I truly couldn’t be happier,” she says. “Not because everything is perfect, because everything is always imperfect. I am never without my trauma and the things that made me who I am. I know that a lot of people see me happy and they think, ‘Oh, everything worked out.’ This stuff is with you forever. So I’m the happiest I’ve ever been now, not because everything is perfect, but because I’ve stopped trying to make everything perfect.”

For more World’s Most Beautiful content, including cover star Anne Hathaway, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.

Credits

Photographer Leeor Wild

Video Directors Eric Michael Roy + Benjamin South

Hair Jacob Rozenberg / A-Frame Agency

Makeup Kale Teter / The Wall Group

Stylist Marc Eram / A-Frame Agency

Custom Dress Marc Eram + Rio Warner

Prop Stylist Steven Valdez/Little Apple Proje

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”