The zipper-covered "Beat It" jacket. The military-inspired coats with
their epaulets, crests and insignias. And, of course, that glittery
glove.
Michael Jackson's fashion sense was as singular as his
musical style and dance moves. Millions imitated his pegged pants and
penny loafers, a fedora cocked just so.
Jackson's longtime
costumer reveals the secrets behind the King of Pop's meticulously
crafted, regal rock-star look - and an intimate glimpse into the man
himself - in a colorful new book, "The King of Style: Dressing Michael
Jackson."
"When you worked with him, you couldn't wait to get
there and you didn't want to leave when you got done," said
author/costume designer Michael Bush, who with his late partner, Dennis
Tompkins, dressed Jackson for more than a generation. "It was hard to
imagine anyone that projected fashion and style any better."
What
most people don't know about Jackson, Bush said, is he was a joker - a
playful prankster who loved to laugh and often teased those closest to
him the most.
Bush tells of meeting Jackson for the first time in
1983, when both men were 25. The King of Pop hadn't retained a costumer
yet, and Bush was up for consideration. Jackson had been holed up for
hours in his trailer on the set of "Captain EO." Bush could hear a
monkey squealing as he approached. It was dark inside and "like 120
degrees." Jackson was snacking.
Eager to please as he prepped the
pop star's clothes, Bush felt something hit him gently in the head. A
cherry stem. A few seconds later, it happened again. When it happened a
third time, Bush lobbed a cherry at the rising superstar. Jackson tossed
a handful back, and thus began a close professional and personal
relationship that spanned the remainder of Jackson's life.
"I
think he wanted someone he could play with. He just wanted to see, 'Am I
going to have fun with this person?'" said Bush, now 54, an almost
sheepish, informally trained clothier from Ohio who learned his craft
from his mom and grandmother, who made wedding gowns, prom dresses and
quilts.
"And I laughed every day until he died."
Bush
wouldn't discuss the time Jackson wore pajama bottoms to court during
his child-molestation trial in 2005, but relished in other details of
the entertainer's unique approach to his performance attire.
"Michael's
concept was, 'I want the fashion designers in the world, the big
conglomerates, I want them to copy me. I don't want to wear what's out
there. I want to push my individuality, and being that my music is me,
my look should be me,'" Bush said in an interview at a warehouse in Los
Angeles, racks of glittery history behind him.
Jackson's stage
costumes were designed to display his dance moves, so Bush and Tompkins,
who died last December, were treated to regular private dance recitals
to inform their work. Jackson danced five or six hours a day whether he
was on tour or not, Bush said: "He traveled with a hardwood floor in a
road case."
All that dancing, such as during the 1987 "Bad" world
tour, meant Jackson could drop so much weight during a concert that the
costumes for his closing numbers had to be smaller than the ones for the
show openers.
"Michael was usually a 28-inch waist, but by the
midpoint of the show, when he was ready to perform his magic act of
choice, right before 'Beat It,' he'd already lost five pounds of water,
and his waist dropped to 27 and a quarter," Bush writes in "The King of
Style." "If we didn't have clothes hanging on the rack in the right
order that were getting progressively smaller, we'd risk him putting on a
pair of pants that would fall to his ankles with each rhythmic move of
his body And there is no magic in that!"
The King of Pop preferred
China silk, silk charmeuse and stretchy fabrics. "Spandex made Michael
feel sleek and secure and worked for his dance style," Bush writes.
Then
there were the military jackets, the rhinestone-encrusted
interpretations of British war uniforms like the one Jackson wore at the
1984 Grammy Awards, when he raked in a record eight awards for
"Thriller."
Jackson had a childlike fascination with rhinestones, Bush said.
"Sometimes
I'd drive three hours to retrieve loose rhinestones straight from the
factory, just because looking at them in that raw form pleased Michael
to no end. Every time I opened the swatch of white felt that encased the
rhinestones, he'd gasp," he writes. "He'd take them from me and
delicately move them around with his fingertips and whisper... 'Can you
imagine being a pirate opening a treasure chest? And seeing all the
glitter inside? What a fascinating life, to be a pirate like that.'"
Bush
and Tompkins worked with Jackson until the pop star's death in June
2009. Though they weren't in charge of the costumes for the ill-fated
"This Is It" comeback tour, Jackson's longtime costume designers created
ensembles for seven songs, including a reprise of his "Billie Jean"
outfit with its loafers and spangled socks. There was also a burgundy
and gold monogrammed top with a Chinese collar and bell sleeves, and a
pair of black bedazzled shin guards.