Immortal Costumes Have To Thrill & Move Well

The set for Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour takes 10 hours to build and just under 3 hours to disassemble! (11-7-2012) Bettina Bolzer-Bowles, head of wardrobe for the Immortal World Tour, gave a phone interview to Cleveland.com from a tour stop in Memphis (USA). She said that more than 3,000 pieces of costume roll from city to city in a caravan of three large trucks, one of which carries a washer and a dryer. There are 1,400 costumes in each performance, and the wardrobe team travels with at least two sets of each. With the way the show’s acrobats and dancers move, the costumes have to do more than just look great. "They have to move -- this is not an opera." Bolzer-Bowles and her crew of eight assistants work closely with costume designer Zaldy Goco, who created clothes for the This Is It concerts in 2009. They need to make sure each piece fits both the style of the show and the needs of the performer. An outfit might look amazing, but restrict vision or hinder a dancer’s movement or catch fire since some costumes are actually outfitted for pyrotechnics. Additionally, costumes are constructed of durable, stretchy materials such as Lycra. Some are made of cotton/polyester blends and all are held together with meticulous stitch work. The costume team tries to quickly repair minor costume issues and save the backups for true emergencies because when they are on the road there’s very little time to create a whole new costume. Each of the costume designs was inspired by an element of Michael Jackson’s music, videos or life. However, they are not simple copies from videos: "The main motivation to do the show was to create a show that Michael would've done. To us, this is his dream becoming a reality. We didn't want to copy what was already there." For example, "Smooth Criminal" inspired the pinstriped gangster costumes, and the frightful bats are nightmarish creations based on "Thriller." You’ll also see references to the "giving tree," a gigantic tree at the Neverland Ranch where Michael loved to work on lyrics to his songs: "The giving tree was a big symbol for him. It was a big element in his life; it served a great purpose." Source: MJFC / Cleveland.com