The Costuming in Michael Jackson’s Bad
In our last article, we debated Michael Jackson’s famous costume from thriller. We’re going to continue along that track with an investigation of the Michael Jackson Bad Costume — an outfit which impacted fashion for years, and still impacts the style of some of the major counter-cultures.
Let’s give the obligatory preamble to this exam. When we’re talking about Michael Jackson, the famous King of Pop ( may he rest in peace ), there are many things that are certain about his career. His fantastic talent spanned across many areas of performance, but most notably were his contributions to musical technique, dance, and style. Each one of these might have novels written about them, so as discussed, we are going to focus in our magnifying glass on the Michael Jackson Bad Costume.
In a style very different from his other music videos, the Michael Jackson bad costume features a long haired Michael, decked all in black. The outfit is multi-layered, including a black jacket, black shirt, black gloves, thick black belt, black pants, and black boots. While I do call all of the items in the Michael Jackson bad costume’black,’ all of them also have numerous accessories or latch-ons that are silver. On the jacket this includes a wide selection of chains, loops, links, and zippers. The gloves have studs/zippers. The belt includes chainlinks. The boots have extra zippers. The pants , however , have a different highlight — red — in a stripe along the side.
What’s actually impressive is that this isn’t an outfit that is’s very well designed for coming up with. Tall boots like these, tighter jackets, hanging chains and accessories, and all these other knobs and whistles, simply don’t make for a convenient dancing experience. Then again, neither does grabbing your crotch, but unless there is a cup included in the Michael Jackon bad costume, that is’s a part of this too! All fooling aside, the King of Pop gives a particularly inspiring display in this extravagent costume.
Though our counterculture movements do not need to acknowledge it, the Michael Jackson bad costume had a significant impact in the look and style of the punk music, and later emo and goth offshoot countercultures. This video was released in 1987, years before the outfits with extra zippers, chains, and more became mainstream for any group. Though these looks were actually influenced by the tough bedecked look of biker crews and hardcore rockers, the precise variations that the King of Pop put in are entirely unique.
If you walk into a Hot subject store, or similar, you will see outfits that are similar to this, even today. Naturally, they are not matching, but the influence can clearly be seen if you are familiar with the video. The style of gloves being utilized in the video are extremely popular ( particularly among females ) in today’s Punk Rock and emo style.
So notwithstanding having passed on, Michael Jackson is alive in a thousand different ways. His music is immortal, his dances will always be remembered, and accept it or not, even decades later, the King of Pop is still working his way into our wardrobe. The amazingly unique and enticing style of this costume have been significant enough that fashion designers, and members of large counter culture movements, still copy this work ( deliberately or unknowingly ).
Now, with Halloween approaching, plenty of people are wanting to pay homage to the King of Pop. If you’re on the lookout for a fun outfit, where you can use some of the accessories in the rest of the year, then this costume is a great direction to go. Still, remember, if you’re going to be doing the dance — wear a cup.
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