User:Pyrrhus16/Fashion

Michael Jackson's dress style led to him being widely cited as a "fashion icon".

Michael Jackson was an American recording artist and entertainer, who is widely cited as a "fashion icon". His dress sense courted both praise and critisism. As a child, he debuted on the professional music scene alongside his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5. While part of the group, he often performed in colorful costumes, which invariably consisted of bell-bottoms, vests and floral shirts. The African American also sported an Afro, which was synonymous with the Black Pride Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

As he entered into adulthood with the release of Off the Wall (1979), Jackson highlighted the change by donning a tuxedo suit for the album's cover art. The use of white socks and a generous amount of sequins was also introduced at this time. A key stage in his fashion history came with the release and success of the 1982 album Thriller.

History

Early years

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958. When he was a child, he joined with his brothers to form The Jackson 5, who became professional musicians collectively by the late 1960s. Their stage outfits were tailor-made by their mother, Katherine, who served as the band's designer. The brothers' clothing during this period included polyester bell-bottoms, butterfly collar shirts and fringy vests. Afro hairstyles completed the boys' look, and was at the time symbolic of the Black Pride Movement, a prominent part of African American culture in the 1960s and 1970s. For one of The Jackson 5's first performances with Motown Records, in August 1968, the siblings wore gold shirts under identical lime green vest suits, which were complemented with matching green boots. They wore similar outfits for their first ever television appearance, on The Hollywood Palace in October 1969. When they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show several weeks later, the five wore mod clothing. On other occasions, the brothers donned bow ties, floral shirts—created by Motown executive Suzanne de Passe—and slim narrow hip trousers, which were popular at the time. Another staple of Jackson's signature look was to wear a sweater over his trousers. As he and his siblings progressed into the 1970s, the band took on a different look of multi-colored polyester ensembles. An example of this included a powder blue sequined tuxedo, which The Jackson 5 wore for one of their appearances on The Carol Burnett Show.

Off the Wall

Four of the Jackson brothers decided to part with Motown in 1976, and moved to Epic Records. The group left behind brother Jermaine and the "5" at the end of their name, as they established theirselves as "The Jacksons" with the addition of younger sibling Randy. In addition to his then-ongoing work as part of the band, Michael Jackson was also preparing his sixth solo studio album, Off the Wall. The completed cover and packaging of the 1979 album featured the singer in a tuxedo, as well as white socks. Ron Weisner, part of the Weisner-DeMann management team, stated that Jackson had wanted to separate himself from the image he had as a child. The thought behind the tuxedo was that it would highlight the fact that he had grown and matured. His white socks were worn to emphasize the movement of his feet as he danced. At the time, white socks were considered a "nerd look", but to his surprise, Jackson started a trend. He later said:

"I admit I love starting trends, but I never thought wearing white socks was going to catch on. Not too long ago it was considered extremely square to wear white socks. It was cool in the 1950s, but in the '60s and '70s you wouldn't be caught dead in white socks. It was too square to consider—for most people. But I never stopped wearing them. Ever. My brothers would call me a dip, but I didn't care. My brother Jermaine would get upset and call my mother, 'Mother, Michael's wearing white socks again. Can't you do something. Talk to him.' He would complain bitterly. They'd all tell me I was a goofball. But I still wore my white socks, and now it's cool again. Those white socks must have caught on just to spite Jermaine. I get tickled when I think about it."

Jackson donned his tuxedo in the music video of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough", and it thereafter became—along with the white socks—a distinctive look for the singer. In the music video of "Rock with You", also from the Off the Wall album, Jackson danced in a jumpsuit of silver sequins. It was another image that became connected with the entertainer, as he wore silver-sequinned outfits on several occasions, such as the time he attended the American Music Awards ceremony in 1980. In commenting on Jackson and his outfit in the video for "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough", a Boston Globe journalist later wrote of the sex appeal on display. "He is irresistibly handsome in a tuxedo whose sleeves are pushed up to his elbows. The giant bowtie could choke a T-rex, and the socks accessorize with his teeth." They added of his look in "Rock with You", "The fogged-up lasers reflect off his sequined disco-ball outfit and space boots: It's Buck Rogers in the Studio 54th century." Jackson biographer Emily Herbert writes that the Off the Wall era "would be [one] of the last times he appeared in what looked like ordinary outfits", as "never again would Michael attempt to look just like everyone else".

Thriller

Jackson's follow-up to Off the Wall was the 1982 album Thriller. A worldwide commercial success, it remains the best-selling album of all time. Jackson adopted a new dress style for this era, and changed his hairstyle from an Afro to Jheri curls. Thriller's cover art is a photograph of the singer laying on the floor and reclining in a white Hugo Boss suit. A black shirt with a zipper is worn underneath, and it is widely opened. A leopard-print handkerchief sticks out from the breast pocket of his jacket. The monthly men's magazine GQ stated that Jackson looked like "an iconic sun-god relaxing after quitting time". The reason the singer wore the white suit was because Thriller was originally intended to be called Starlight, and his clothes were meant to reflect an image of luminosity.

Jackson often donned dark sunglasses. The entertainer's use of a single white glove in the 1980s led to it becoming one of his signature pieces of clothing and he was subsequently nicknamed "The Gloved One".

For the music videos that accompanied the songs from Thriller, Jackson wore several distinct outfits. In the short film for "Billie Jean", he wears a black leather suit with a pink shirt, red bow tie, and black-and-white dance shoes. In the short film for "Beat It", he dons high-water pants and multi-zippered red leather jacket. In Michael Jackson's Thriller—the short film that accompanies his hit song "Thriller"—he wears two different outfits. The first consists of ankle-cut jeans and a collegiate jacket with the letter 'M' emblazoned upon it. The second costume is made up of red jeans, black shoes, white socks, and a red-and-black leather jacket with pointed shoulders. The costumes for Michael Jackson's Thriller were created by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, the wife of John Landis, who directed the music video. She later commented, "It was a dance that took place in a graveyard setting, it was dark, foggy, and I needed Michael to pop out of that picture. The shoulders of that jacket gave him some virility[...] I can look at my career and know that I designed [the] Michael Jackson Thriller look. [It] just seemed to become part of the fabric of the culture."

On March 25, 1983, Jackson performed "Billie Jean" to critical and popular acclaim. Staged at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was a celebration of Motown Records' twenty-fifth anniversary and featured the Jackson brothers singing a medley of their old hits. After they finished, they left Michael alone on stage and he went into his routine, which included his first public execution of the moonwalk. Jackson wore black pants, leather penny loafers, a silver sequinned shirt, a black sequinned jacket, a black fedora and a single white rhinestone glove. Jackson revealed several years later that he found the black jacket, and said to himself, "You know, someday I'm going to wear this to perform". The fedora was provided by Jackson's management, after the musician told them that he wanted "a spy's hat" that a secret agent would wear. The singer wore the single glove because he thought that "one was cooler than two". Like the socks, he also wanted to accentuate his movements on stage. "The eye goes to where the white is", he stated. Medical professionals and associates of Jackson have also offered the opinion that the glove was introduced to hide blotches on his hand caused by the skin disease vitiligo, with which he was diagnosed around this time. Jackson later revealed that despite many people's assumptions, Motown 25 had not been the first time he had worn a single glove:

"I had been wearing a single glove for years before Thriller. I felt that one glove was cool. Wearing two gloves seemed so ordinary, but a single glove was different... I had actually been wearing the glove for a long time, but it hadn't gotten a lot of attention until all of a sudden it hit with Thriller in 1983. I was wearing it on some of the old tours back in the 1970s, and I wore one glove during the Off the Wall tour and on the cover of the live album that came out afterward. It's so show business that one glove. I love wearing it."

Jackson's continued use of the single white glove in public made it his trademark at this time, and he was subsequently dubbed "The Gloved One". Though he was most known for the white glove, the singer had several others in different colors, such as black, red and blue. Most of this handwear was created by designer Bill Whitten, who had made costumes for Jackson and his brothers since the late 1970s. Around 1,200 Austrian crystal rhinestones were hand sewn onto each of Jackson's gloves, a task which took up to 40 hours to complete. A five figure sum was the estimated value of each glove.

Jackson began wearing military-style jackets in the early 1980s and continued to wear them throughout his life.

The musican's signature white glove was noticeably absent on January 16, 1984, when Jackson instead wore a black sequinned glove as he collected an unprecedented eight awards at the American Music Awards. In addition, he sported cropped tuxedo pants, dark sunglasses and a military-style jacket covered with red sequins. Several days later, on January 27, 1984, the entertainer suffered some setbacks. Not only did he drop his white sequinned glove into the toilet, the musician also received second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire as he filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. As he was about to be taken into an ambulance in front of crowds and photographers, medics attempted to remove his white glove. The singer, however, insisted that it be kept on for better public relations.

As a result of the injuries sustained to his scalp, Jackson was forced to wear a hair piece to the Grammy Awards on February 28, 1984. Accompanied by Brooke Shields and Emmanuel Lewis, the singer wore tuxedo pants, a sapphire blue spangled military jacket with epaulets and his signature white glove. A shy man when made the center of attention, he also donned dark sunglasses. Jackson took to the podium each time he won an award. Upon collecting his seventh award of a record eight, the singer removed his glasses for the first time that evening. On stage, he stated that the gesture was made for his friend Katharine Hepburn, as well as "the girls in the balcony".

Along with Jackson's continued commercial success came overwhelming media and fan attention, which was dubbed "Michaelmania". Throughout the world, merchandise was issued depicting the singer and his style. Jackson broke records for licensing revenues and sales figures. His likeness was used on stamps, posters, trading cards, calendars and other products. Jackson dolls were manufactured, and came in "authentic stage outfits" that replicated the costumes worn in the music videos of "Beat It" and "Thriller", as well as his appearances at the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards. Michael Jackson replica jackets were popular at this time, and were based off the ones from his music videos. Pop culture author David Mansour wrote that the one from the short film of "Thriller" became the "hottest outerwear fad of the mid-1980s". The penny loafer became the number one shoe for a time because of Jackson. The singer's clothes were copied by children around the US. Imitation became so severe that, despite pupil protests, Bound Brook High School banned students from wearing single white gloves. Staff at the school confiscated the offending handwear from students, and condemned the Jackson look as dangerous and disruptive.

With the increasing attention focused on Jackson, came the singer's heightened need for privacy. The entertainer had been a Jehovah's Witnesses since he was a child, and despite his immense fame, he still continued his weekly task of going door-to-door proselytizing for the faith. Jackson would deliver copies of The Watchtower and spread "The Word" while dressed in disguise. He would wear a false moustache, hat, glasses, tie and a sweater. One woman who invited him into her house recalled that "it was very odd. At first I thought it was some kind of trick-or-treat gag." She said, "A young black man came to my door wearing what was obviously a phony moustache and beard, and a big hat. His face was too smooth for all that facial hair. He looked like a little boy playing grown-up." The woman added that "he had this soft little voice and looked harmless enough."

One of Jackson's next projects after Thriller was "We Are the World", a charity song which he wrote with Lionel Richie and recorded in January 1985 as part of the supergroup USA for Africa, that included other artists such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Bruce Springsteen. The music video that accompanied the song drew criticism from some commentators, who felt that Jackson was "unable to leave his ego at the door" in the video because he wore sequined socks, his single white glove, loafers, sunglasses, and a black-and-gold jacket. The singer stated he had wanted to wear his signature socks so that the audience would be able to identify him; in the clip, the camera moves up his body, before resting on his face. The musician joked before filming, "People will know it's me as soon as they see the socks. Try taking footage of Bruce Springsteen's socks and see if anyone knows who they belong to." Jackson biographer Lisa D. Campbell wrote that the "brain dead critics" singled the singer out and "only considered what he chose to wear to the recording session rather than recognize the tremendous contribution he made to the entire project".

Bad

Jackson performing during the Bad World Tour

Invincible and trial

Jackson wearing a fedora in 2003

Influence

I've long believed that thinking too much about your look is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, because an artist should let his style evolve naturally, spontaneously. You can't think about these things, you have to feel your way into them.

Michael Jackson, Moonwalk (1988)

Legacy

Jackson's belt and jacket from the Bad World Tour

White suit: Grammy hall of fame.

See also

• Fashion topics

• 1960s in fashion
• 1970s in fashion
• 1980s in fashion
• 1990–2009 in fashion

• Michael Jackson's health and appearance
• Janet Jackson as a gay icon

References

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography

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