United in grief - and Versace

getty via daylife


It's a family that has spent 40 years in the spotlight. And yet these are the images that may remain the most deeply-etched in our minds of the Jackson clan: young, old, black, white, high-profile, low-profile - and, in the case of Michael Jackson’s children, finally unmasked before the world - as all were united in grief onstage at LA's Staples Center, following the two-hour celebration of the life of their fallen brother, father and son. And as it emerges, the entire family was dressed in custom-made Versace. With extraordinary media coverage of the event – which, in online terms alone, saw a web traffic surge of 30 percent and broke Yahoo and Facebook records - it was a powerful brand statement for the Italian luxury brand. But just what was the Versace/Jackson connection?


getty via daylife

In Style, which broke the news, reported that Janet Jackson made a personal request to Donatella Versace , “as a tribute to one of her brother’s favorite designers, the late Gianni Versace” - who died on July 15, 1997, coincidentally, also at the age of 50.

Versace dressed many celebrities both on and off the stage and to be sure, Michael ‘King of Bling’ Jackson would have been right up Versace’s flashy, and often trash-glam, alley.

But after doing a little digging frockwriter was fascinated to learn that the celebrity trajectory of the Versace brand – which has embraced the biggest names in showbusiness, from Elton John to Madonna – appears to have in fact originated with Jackson.

According to a 2003 story in WWD, Gianni Versace’s very first celebrity tie-in was in 1983, when he outfitted Jackson and Paul McCartney for the video of their Say Say Say duet (below).

Jackson himself never appeared in any Versace campaigns – as has Madonna.

However in 1996, Jackson’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley was shot by Mario Testino for Atelier Versace and Versace Jeans Couture campaigns.

The chic styling of the Jackson clan at yesterday's memorial may have reminded some fashionwatchers of an editorial spread called Silent that was shot by Steven Meisel for the August 2008 edition of Vogue Italia (see slideshow below).

A tribute to the late Yves Saint Laurent who had died two months earlier, the story was set in a graveyard at a fictitious funeral and featured a cast of "grieving" models, including 1980s icon - and Gianni Versace fave - Linda Evangelista.

Two of the models, coincidentally, wore a beret and wide-brimmed fedora, not unlike those worn yesterday by Janet and Latoya Jackson.

Silent by Steven Meisel (Vogue Italy, August 2008)

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Jamming with Jackson: Orianthi Panagaris, the ultimate rock chick

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Millions have watched the AEG video of Michael Jackson's final rehearsal, shot two days before his death. Well it now emerges that the blonde guitarist who jammed with Jackson in the clip (below) is in fact an Australian – 24 year-old Orianthi Panagaris. Born in Adelaide, Panagaris picked up the acoustic guitar at six, the electric guitar at 11, by 15 was writing and performing - and has been described by The New York Times as a Carlos Santana protégé. The pair met - and jammed - while Santana was touring Australia and the following quote from Santana appears on Panagaris’ MySpace page: “If I was going to pass the baton to somebody, she would be my first choice”.

Signed with 19 Recordings/Geffen Records and currently recording an album in LA, Panagaris says she has also jammed with Prince and toured with Steve Vai. In February she performed on stage with Carrie Underwood at the Grammys.

Panagaris' big Jackson gig might have just evaporated, but frockwriter predicts it won’t be long before she is no longer an unknown outside music circles (just try a Google News search on her full name - nada, at time of writing). And all thanks to Jackson, whose last moments as a performer she had the extraordinary privilege to share.

On July 3, Panagaris noted on Twitter:

“looking back on some wonderful memories and feeling really sad, MJ was ready and was taken far too soon,he was such a wonderful person.r.i.p”

first video blog

Paris salutes the King of Pop

comme des garcons SS10/AP via ONTD_Fashinfags

The fashion world is also mourning Michael Jackson – and not just opportunistic retailers such as Supré who are hopping onto the MJ tribute merchandise bandwagon. Two days before Jackson died, it was revealed that the costumes for his upcoming This Is It tour would be festooned with 300,000 Swarovski crystals. At Givenchy’s menswear show on Friday, Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci told The New York Times that he had been working on some of those costumes and that his show (which featured some embellishment) paid homage to Jackson. John Galliano was the first to add Jackson’s music to his soundtrack. Also on Friday, Australia’s Jethro Cave upstaged yet another SS10 menswear show with his personal styling - Comme des Garçons. Although Cave lost the Gumby earring that prompted commentary at Costume National in Milan earlier in the week, he lifted the sleeve of his jacket during one CDG exit to reveal the words 'RIP Smooth Criminal' scrawled on his forearm. The 'Thriller' finale of Paul Smith’s show which closed the season last night was all over Twitter when Smith emerged on the runway, dancing with his models (here is a video). Jackson had of course recently been rediscovered by the fashion industry.

Much was made of Jackson’s recent appearances in an embellished T-shirt, jacket and trousers from Balmain's most recent womenswear collections – and a similarly-glitzy Givenchy jacket from several seasons ago.

The Balmain/Givenchy connection reportedly came via a hookup between Jackson and French Vogue fashion director Emmanuelle Alt.

But while Jackson has been cited by more than one as the inspiration for the rock trash aesthetic of Christophe Decarnin's recent collections for Balmain, notably a series of influential embellished military jackets, it seems that Jackson himself may have been more than a little inspired by fashion.

Together with the sequinned white glove, the beaded socks and the red bomber jacket worn in Thriller, the heavily-embellished vintage-look naval/military jacket was one of Jackson’s signature looks.

On several occasions the LA Times has credited Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins as Jackson’s costumiers for the past 20 years, including this style obit from Friday.



bill whitten for michael jackson: liveauctioneers.com (T) AP via daylife

Jackson may have worked with Bush and Tompkins in the latter part of his stage careeer, however the embellished military jackets that he wore to the 1984 Grammys and a series of other events in the 1980s – along with the original concept for the rhinestone glove – are widely attributed to Bill Whitten.

An LA-based costume designer, Whitten already worked with the Jackson 5 in the disco-infused 1970s, when the sibling group were performing in dazzling glitter stage outfits.

Here is one performance on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which ran from 1971-1974 on CBS.



Jackson was of course not the first entertainment industry figure to make a style claim on the vintage-look military jacket.

In the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix's stage look included genuine antique naval jackets, while the high-colour versions sported by The Beatles on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club were authored by Mexican designer Manuel Cuevas.


adam ant/indolentdandy.net

But according to Stuart Goddard – aka Adam Ant - Jackson's jacket inspiration was more London New Romantic than Sixties psychedelia.

Goddard claims that shortly after the release of his Kings of the Wild Frontier album and videos from 1980-1981, he received a phone call from Jackson asking where he had sourced the heavily-embellished vintage naval jacket worn in the videos.

Goddard told Jackson that it came from the costume hire company Berman's and Nathan's in London's Covent Garden.

At the time the fashion and music scenes were heavily entwined in London.

However in case you are wondering if that makes Vivienne Westwood not only a godmother to punk, but also to the King of Pop, according to Goddard, the jacket was his own call.

Westwood's then creative partner, Malcolm McLaren, was the band's manager at the time.

In Goddard's autobiography, he claims that although McLaren suggested he wear something from Westwood’s debut collection, entitled Pirate (shown in March 1981 in London), Goddard declined, preferring to source the genuine article.

Supré hearts Michael Jackson

Well that was quick. The King of Pop has yet to be laid to rest - or plastinated performing the moonwalk, pending which reports you believe - but already today in Sydney, Australian highstreet chain Supré had an $18 'I (broken) <3 Michael' T front and centre at its Westfield Bondi Junction boutique. According to a Supré sales consultant the shirt was whipped up at lightning speed by a local supplier. Stand by for a raft of global Jackson tribute merchandise. After the shot was tweeted by frockwriter, Real Living magazine deputy ed Natalie Walton offered the following theory for Supré's turbo speed-to-market: "maybe leftover from Hutchence's death???"

Balmain inspiration spotted in Balmain

ONTD

Fashion critics have been busy clocking comparisons between Christophe Decarnin’s rock trash relaunch of Balmain and Michael 'King of Pop' Jackson. On September 28, Style.com’s Sarah Mower noted the “Drummer-boy Michael Jackson jackets with the frogging picked out in crystal” in Balmain's Spring 2009 collection. On March 22, in a FW0910 wrapup, The LA Times’ Booth Moore suggested that if money is no object, punters should “Go for the Michael Jackson look at Balmain, the crystal-studded jackets and disco mini-dresses. Or buy the real thing at the Jackson memorabilia auction in Beverly Hills next month”. Thanks to the eagle runway-to-red carpet eyes of commenters over at LiveJournal's Oh No They Didn’t forum, it appears, hilariously, that that may have been a Balmain original that Jackson himself was sporting when papped in LA on April 10. Judge for yourself with this runway/pap mashup done by Red Carpet Fashion Awards - the blog's first ever runway comparison to a male celeb. The Neverland auction will take place from April 22-25 at 9900 Wilshire Boulevard. From today, the public will have one week to check out the 1390 lots before they go under the Julien’s Auctions hammer (UPDATE 15/4: auction now cancelled). What next? Joan Collins in Balenciaga FW0910?