June 27th, 2009
.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana }Where were you when you heard about Michael Jackson’s sudden death?
I was at my computer around 4:30 p.m. (ET) yesterday when a news flash from TMZ came across the screen. The legend, the 
laughing-stock, the entertainer of the century, had been rushed to the hospital after a 911 call saying he had collapsed in his Los Angeles home.
About an hour later, my husband told me he just got a call saying MJ was dead.
Jackson was a fashion force. His style was emulated by fans and non-fans alike. First, with his brothers he helped pushed the acceptance of the Afro into the mainstream and made black kids around the world proud to wear a fro.
He later sparked runs on white suits, floodwater pants, red leather jackets, military jackets, studs, white socks with loafers and - though I’d rather forget – the jheri curl.
Jackson had a profound effect on dance style and the clothes one had to wear to effect those moves. Like major pop-culture directors before and after him – James Brown, Madonna, Bob Marley – Jackson was able to make intelligent, self-possessed people emulate him from head to toe.
His impact on the lens through which we view fashion shoots and videos was profound. Suddenly, after Jackson’s spate of videos, we saw that the medium could convey as much style and emotion as a full-length movie.
A huge gap in the hours of coverage I’ve watched and the thousands of words I’ve read since his passing is the characterization of MJ as a has-been. What’s missing is the potent observation that Jackson was newly idolized by a young generation.
Any hip youths into fashion or into music is “hip” to Michael Jackson. Kids are into studying his style, studying his moves, listening to his music. I bet a lot of those London tickets weren’t just bought by babyboomers like me but a lot of 20-somethings who wanted to see MJ live; a lot of kids who know Justin Timberlake’s professional genealogy.
It is these kids as well as mature fashion insiders who lit the match of an MJ style revival a few years ago, one that is still burning today. It’s part of the Eighties redux. Fashion historians will settle the intruiging question: Did the MJ fascination spark the landslide Eighties tend that is everywhere in fashion or will Jackson be a footnote to it?
I think I already know the answer. What are your thoughts?
*Photo licensed to: Photorazzi.com
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