Michael Jackson's groundbreaking music
video for Thriller has recently had a modern upgrade as the entire short film
has been remastered and is now as vivid as ever in 4K quality.
Long deemed as a revolutionary masterpiece
for its time, Thriller changed the way we would watch music videos.
It led an entire generation of pop culture
in the was voted the greatest music video of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Thriller remains a staple and Spooky inspired playlists.
And every Halloween,
countless fans continue to recreate some of the video's most iconic looks,
none as memorable or significant as the King of Pop's iconic red leather
jacket, launching a 1980s fashion craze
and becoming a defining look for Michael Jackson thereafter.
But how was this era defining look conceived?
What was its true cultural impact?
And whatever happened to the very jacket that started it all?
Here's the detail.
When Michael Jackson decided to embark on an ambitious music video for the title
track and final single from his history making a record thriller,
he decided to employ An American Werewolf in London director John Landis
to collaborate on the horror inspired video concept.
Costume designer
Deborah Nadulmanland Landis, in collaboration with her husband
John Landis was employed to come up with ideas for what Jackson could wear
for the shoot in established figure and movie fashion departments.
Deborah had already created other iconic
costumes for film franchises such as that of Indiana Jones and the Blues Brothers.
Inspired by its themes and the aggressive
energy of the track, a costumer wanted to see Jackson embody
power, a superhuman quality and a more virile image.
Deborah was conscious of his growing sex
symbol status and this only was to be amplified as the video featured Michael
with a female love interest for the very first time.
An obstacle in portraying this, however, was Jackson's 25 year old Waiflike frame.
Reportedly weighing in at just £99 with a 26 inch waist.
Deborah was concerned that the mild manor
Jackson would struggle to convince audiences that he was like any other red
blooded male cozying up to his girlfriend or his transformation into a menacing
zombielike figure wouldn't scare or intimidate the viewer.
After some consulting with Michael himself and designed by the costumer,
it was decided that the singer would wear a calf leather jacket featuring silver
buckles at its cuffs, red silk lining, dropunto stitch collar and snap front
closure to be constructed by Paris based leather designer Mark Lawrence.
The jacket was noted for its Star Trek as
V shaped front panels and its angular, rigid shoulders protruding out over
the tops of the arms accompanied by exaggerated shoulder pads.
Every trick in the book was used to give
Jackson the appearance of a more robust physique.
Despite Michael Jackson having already
sported another red leather jacket in his video for Beat It,
the candy apple red color was ultimately decided to make Jackson stand out
in the dark settings as well as the crowd of zombies he would be dancing in union
with whilst also making him appear vivid and full of energy.
His matching colored pants would elongate
his frame and give an almost superhero uniform quality to the overall look.
Christine Glitter, in her book Stardom Industry of Desire,
discussed Jackson's overall style and thriller.
Michael's outfit and its stylistic
features the wet look hairstyle, the ankle cut jeans and the letter V
emblazoned on his jacket reinforced this metatextual superimposition of role.
If Michael, as the male protagonist,
is both boyfriend and star, his female counterpart in the equation
of romance is both the girlfriend and at this meta textual level, the fans.
After the video's muchanticipated release and its farreaching success,
michael Jackson's jacket from the video became one of the hottest outwear fads
of the mid 1980s and embodied teen cool aesthetic during the era.
Expensive counterfets soon began to be
massproduced during the heights of Michael mania, often selling for over $500
to people thinking they were getting the real thing.
To stop this, in 1984,
Jackson filed a lawsuit in New York City to prevent sales of unauthorized copies
of the jacket as well as other merchandise relating to his work.
However, reproductions of the now iconic jacket continued to be a problem,
the result being that today there are countless unofficial reproduction Thriller
jackets floating around, many of them fans have had signed
by Jackson over the years and were later auctioned off for considerable amounts.
Here's one signed by Jackson in black
on the back, which sold in 2011 and even comes with its own lively backstory.
The jacket is accompanied by a letter from the jacket's original owner,
who obtained the signature when he attended the September 11, 1988 show.
During Jackson's battle tour in Liverpool,
England, he accompanies his sister backstage after she fainted.
But with so many reproduction Thriller
jackets being auctioned off, it is natural to question where
the original jacket that appeared in the 1983 music video is today.
In 2019.
Many fans were shocked to see during
the end credits of the documentary Leaving Neverland.
Choreographer Wade Robson, one of the two men who accused the late
pop star of sexual abuse, is seen burning memorabilia that Jackson
gave him when he was younger, including a Thriller jacket.
When the documentary's director, Dan Reed,
was asked whether these items were actual, michael Jackson wore gloves and jackets,
reed responded that they were the real deal.
Of course it's all genuine.
I verified this with Wade, he said during the interview.
He's not going to go and buy some
Michael Jackson memorabilia on ebay and then burn it in front of his little boy.
I mean, come on.
When the director was asked why Robson
burned anything at all, Reid responded the other day, he described it as he
wanted to, like, get the yuck off his body, get Michael off him.
And by incinerating these mementos,
he felt that he was taking a step towards that, towards fraying himself.
During the documentary, Robson stated that while he and his family
were visiting Jackson's home, the singer would let him pick out
souvenirs from his wardrobe, mentioning specifically a pair of buckled
gloves from Bad and a white fedora from the Smooth Criminal music video.
However, it was actually James Safechuck,
the other man who accused Michael Jackson of sex crimes during the documentary,
who stated that Jackson let him take the Thriller jacket home.
Quote I wore it to the grocery store, he recounted in Leaving Neverland.
But was it the original Thriller jacket?
After these statements were made,
Los Angelesbased auctioneers Julian's Auctions confirmed on Twitter
that Robson sold a Thriller jacket through them for $49,920 back in 2011.
They also revealed that at the time of the auction,
Wade Robson wished to remain anonymous and stated that the accuser sold any other
memorabilia of value he had during the same auction.
In response,
Robson confirmed that the jacket was not the same one from the Thriller video,
but a replica that he had been given by the singer.
The Thriller jacket that I burned
in the photos was my custom childhood jacket that I used to perform in, he said.
Quote after disclosing my abuse
to my therapist in 2012, I burned some more items as part of my recovery.
So what ultimately happened
to the original Thriller jacket and where is it today?
Well, there are actually two versions
of the jacket that were worn throughout the video.
One that remained in mint condition,
and then another that was intentionally ripped, burned and distressed for when
Michael transformed into a zombie creature.
The latter is owned by the Michael Jackson estate, who also owned Michael Jackson's
letterman varsity style jacket that he wore in the opening scenes of the video.
Both jackets were recently displayed in the Jackson family home in Encino,
Los Angeles during their annual Thriller night Halloween event.
The unaltered Thriller jacket was then given to Jackson's longtime costume
designers, dennis Tomkins and Michael Bush.
Michael brought the jacket to Tomkins and Bush himself to be used as a reference
for all subsequent concert versions they would make during the decades.
When the pop superstar first arrived with the item, they reportedly asked if he
could really dance freely in the jacket, to which Jackson incredulously replied,
quote have you seen the video for Thriller?
At a later date, Jackson officially gifted the jacket to the designers,
adding inscriptions in the lining, quote two Bush and Dennis.
All my love, Michael Jackson.
And the sleeve was signed Love, Michael Jackson.
In 2011, Michael Bush put the iconic red and black leather jacket under the hammer,
which was estimated to fetch at least 200 $0.
Overseen by Julian's Auctions in Beverly Hills,
the jacket was ultimately sold for an unprecedented one $8 million.
The buyer, a Texan gold trader named
Milton Barrett, described the jacket as, quote the greatest piece of rock and roll
memorabilia in history and had plans to display it at Austin's dell
Children's Hospital in hopes to raise money for children's charities
and hospitals around the world in the spirit of Michael Jackson.
A portion of proceeds from the jacket were
also donated to the Shambala animal kingdom where Jackson's Bengal tigers were
housed when he left Neverland Ranch in 2006.
In 2022, Michael Jackson's red leather
Thriller jacket got a brand new home with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in Cleveland, Ohio, unveiling a new Michael Jackson display
inside their Legends of Rock exhibit ahead of the anniversary of Thriller,
which showcased Michael Jackson's iconic jacket as a featured artifact.
The legendary clothing item was reportedly
on loan to the venue for at least a year and was flown into Cleveland with a high
level of security surrounding its arrival to the exhibition hall.
We are thrilled to display Michael Jackson's jacket from his
groundbreaking music video for Thriller, one of the greatest videos of all time
and the title track to the best selling album of all time, said Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame curator Amanda Bashini in a statement.
It's an iconic artifact from Jackson's monumental career.
Thanks for watching the detail.
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