Michael Bush’s tell-all fashion book about singer Michael Jackson has been in the works for two decades. But Bush’s closely guarded secrets as the king of pop’s personal dresser and designer aren’t tabloid fodder. They’re fascinating insider tidbits about his superstar client and friend.
“The King of Style” (Insight Editions, 2012) was honored last month with the top prize — a gold medal — as the pop culture/leisure winner at the Independent Publishers Book Awards. The book is loaded with the lavish garments Bush and his significant other and business partner, Dennis Tompkins, who died in late 2011, covered in “icing” and “dust” — words Jackson used for anything shiny. But it’s Bush’s behind-the-scenes stories about the legendary entertainer that keep you turning the page.
For instance, Jackson only danced in Florsheim loafers, and he instructed Bush to never, under any circumstances, polish them.
So his fans in the back row could see him moonwalk, Jackson danced in white socks covered with nearly 5,000 rhinestones (each hand sewn) and high-water pants — or “floods” as Jackson called them. Military-inspired jackets became his trademark because the style was worn by royalty during Victorian times as a form of entertainment.
“And Michael was the ultimate entertainer,” Bush said on the phone from his Los Angeles home. And then this, referencing a Napoleon quotation: “Michael believed in the saying, ‘With baubles men are led.’”
Bush, 55, learned his craft in Portsmouth, Ohio, from his mother and grandmother, who made wedding gowns, prom dresses and quilts. He began working with Jackson in 1985, meeting the singer in a trailer on the set of the “Captain EO” movie, for which he had sewn costumes. Bush was assigned to be Jackson’s dresser.
When he entered Jackson’s trailer with his wardrobe for the day, the pop superstar was sitting in the dark with his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. Jackson threw a cherry at Bush, then another and one more — “a test for a sense of humor,” Bush figured. So Bush tossed one back and then got Jackson into his outfit.
Bush and Tompkins refashioned rhinestone gloves, added “Thriller” jackets — including snakeskin, sea bass and neoprene ones and a 27-pound version loaded with lights and batteries. They created outfits for the singer’s videos, short movies and world tours.
They received a patent — a surprise gift from Jackson — after inventing for him a pair of boots fashioned with Florsheim loafers that became known as the “lean shoes.” With the footwear bolted onto a board, Jackson could lean into a stunning 45-degree drop for his 1987 “Smooth Criminal” video and, later, live stage performances.
“He burst into tears” over the device, said Bush, who was always near Jackson, either in the dressing room or offstage during a show. He’d spend hours in the studio watching Jackson dance in order to make a jacket fit like a second skin — and then wait for Jackson to say, “Bush, you can go ice it now.”
“Life with Michael was anything but regimented,” Bush said. “He would call at 2 a.m. and ask, ‘Did I wake you up Bush?’ ‘No,’ I’d tell him. ‘I had to get up to get the phone.’ He would laugh and say, ‘OK, this is what I’d like for you to do for me, Bush.’”
When Jackson died on June 25, 2009, La Toya Jackson phoned Bush and told him, “The family wants you to design and make Michael’s burial outfit.”
“I told La Toya, ‘I don’t think I can do that,’” Bush recalled.
But La Toya was insistent.
“’You have to,’” she told me. “’Who else would do it?’ She was right. Who else would do it?”
Jackson’s garments, which took Bush and Tompkins five days to complete (Bush spent an hour putting them on Jackson, saying his own personal goodbye), were anything but mournful. They were sumptuous: a milky white military jacket saturated with pearls and cream-colored glass bugle beads, and black leather pants adorned with black seed beads. Cherubs held a crown on a gold bejeweled oversized belt. A British royal crest decorated an armband. And Tinker Bell was slinging glittered dust inside the right breast of his jacket; the fairy was Jackson’s ultimate fantasy character “because he would say when she slings her dust, the magic begins.”
“I asked La Toya what shoes should he wear because when he wasn’t performing, he wore Beatle boots,” Bush said. “La Toya told me: ‘Bush, he has to go out of this world dancing. Definitely the Florsheims.’”
Bush had more to say about his book and dressing Michael Jackson:
Q: In the beginning of your book, you write that you likened Michael to a canvas.
A: Clothing is like a canvas; it explains people’s personalities. Michael was extremely shy on a one-to-one basis, but with his clothes, it was always about, “Look at my clothes, not at me.” Most of all, Michael really understood showmanship. He always said, “I dance the beat and the clothes have to show the beat.”
Q: Where do you think that sort of thinking came from?
A: He once told me, “If I study the greats, I’ll become greater.” That was what drove him to perfection, even with his costumes.
Q: He knew how to manipulate clothes, didn’t he?
A: He wanted designs that were authoritative and demanded respect — and that was the military jacket. That look was his iconic visual.
Source: mysanantonio.com / MJ-Upbeat.com
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