This Soap Opera Superstar Regrets Wearing The Eighties Dress to End All Eighties Dresses to the Emmys

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Comedy writer Bonnie Datt once bought a chainmail vest "for clubbing"—a purchase she later came to lament, once she realized that chainmail wasn't particularly slimming. Inspired by this, she now spends her spare time asking famous people to dish about purchases which they initially loved—but ended up regretting, for Buyer's Remorse.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Daytime television's greatest icon, Susan Lucci, came to fame starring as the scheming Erica Kane on ABC's All My Children—a role she played for forty one years. Along the way, the stylish actress also became somewhat infamous, after failing to win eighteen Emmy nominations. (She finally won the award for her nineteenth.) Since All My Children went off the air last year, Lucci's been featured on Hot in Cleveland and will soon be seen starring in a new Lifetime series called Devious Maids. When we asked Susan to tell us about something she'd had Buyer's Remorse about, we were surprised to learn that it was a gown she once wore to the Emmys.

Racked: Can you tell us about something you've had Buyer's Remorse about?

Susan Lucci: One dress I wore in the late late eighties to the Emmys. What was I thinking? It was a dress I bought in Toronto when I was doing a movie there. And as many of us did in the late Eighties—you couldn't put enough on your body at one time. And this dress had everything that you could possibly have in a dress. It had several materials, some were metallic, it was basically black and silver, it had lace, it had ruffles it had studs, it had rhinestones, it had poofy sleeves, off the shoulder, a fitted bodice and a full skirt. That's everything.

Racked: Tastefully subtle?

Susan Lucci: Oh, it was so subtle. I don't know how they could fit me on a TV screen, between my hair and that gown.
· Susan Lucci [Official Site]
· All Buyer's Remorse Posts [Racked]