Costumes fit for a King

Those dressing up as a dancing zombie from Thriller for Halloween have more than one Michael to thank for their costume. For 25 years until Michael Jackson's death in 2009, Michael Bush created many of the garments the world saw on stage, in videos and in the late entertainer's life. From the cropped trousers and blinged-out socks to, yes, dozens of those famous quilt-seamed military-inspired leather jackets.

The Thriller jacket itself - without question the most famous of these - predates Bush and was designed by Deborah Nadoolman (noted theatre and film costume designer and historian, and wife of Thriller director John Landis) and was auctioned in June for a princely sum.

But as part of Jackson's inner circle, Bush, along with his late partner Dennis Tomkins, began designing the singer's concert costumes and personal wardrobe in 1984 - including making refinements to that iconic glove. Jackson made the first crystal-studded glove himself, but he soon preferred their versions.

"In earlier times the stones were thick and all the same size," recalls Bush, "and thick, a bit like Mickey Mouse." Bush refined and sculpted the design using graduated sizes of the iridescent aurora borealis crystals preferred by Jackson because they cast off more light. "To this day, when you walk around his glove it looks like it's moving - it's got its own life."

Bush's new memoir, The King of Style: Dressing Michael Jackson, is a lavish coffee-table retrospective that includes costume sketches, never-seen personal photographs and detailed images of designs in progress. The entertainer often made gifts of his costumes back to Bush and Tomkins. Tomkins died last year and Bush will be auctioning most of their collection in December with Julien's of Hollywood, after the touring exhibitions in London and in Tokyo are finished.

Stepping out of the wings after so many years, Bush has been experiencing the effect of his costumes in a different way. "That has zapped me to reality, to see the power the finished garment had," he says. "Because I saw it in a hundred pieces on the work table."

When he brought one of the famous crystallized gloves to an event in Bath recently, "I looked up and I had 80 people standing there, like the kids in line at Macy's in New York waiting to see Santa," Bush recalls on the phone from New York. "It was so humbling to see how this little piece of rhinestone has meaning for people."

The main reason Bush is parting with the historical garments now is the problem of storage. For years they were "shoved in closets, piled in boxes, shoved under my bed," he marvels. "I can't protect this any more - the storage, the moth balls. It is fabric, it has to be stored in the right climate." For example, one of the shirts Jackson wore in Dirty Diana is now in delicate condition. "It's French voile. Over 25 years and now simply taking it off and on the mannequins for these exhibitions, it is starting to fall apart and it will be lost."

The book contains other interesting details - such as the fact that Jackson would dance only in Florsheim shoes. "He learned to dance in those shoes because they're what his family could afford when he was little. He'd say, 'I don't care what you do from my ankles up, do not touch my shoes. And don't polish them.' Comfort was the main concern to the dancer. By the time the tour was over, the shoes all fit him like a pair of socks."

The only exception was the pair of custom-made "lean" shoes the trio patented, which bolted to the floor and were designed to make the magic 45-degree leaning move from Jackson's 1987 Smooth Criminal video possible on the live concert stage.

Jackson's flamboyant stage wardrobe came with other practical considerations. The entertainer could also lose up to five pounds of water during a two-hour show, Bush recalls, and as the sets progressed his costumes got progressively smaller, accordingly. "As thin as he was, and he had no hips! We had gimmicks like elastics in the waist of his pants to help them stay up but you could wring water out of his clothes when you took them off."

Bush hasn't exactly retired: He will be touring his book for the next six months through Hard Rock Cafés across Europe, but says he's unlikely to design more stage costumes anytime soon. The King of Style: Dressing Michael Jackson, is published by Inside Editions; Julien's of Hollywood hosts The Collection of Tomkins & Bush auction Dec. 2.