Michael Jackson: From his tailor Michael Bush (4)

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Michael was a man of contradictions

Bush says that when Michael Jackson designed his military jackets with all that decoration and flash, he had his female fans in mind.

All 800 to 900 clothing pieces that Bush and Tompkins sewed for Michael were unusual, tight, and expensive. Yet the King of Pop would dress comfortably in private—things like loose cotton shirts, pleated-front cotton pants, and comfortable slippers. Michael was cold, and his favorite striped cotton velvet jackets kept him warm. He preferred loose, comfortable clothes.

Unlike his reputation and wealth, on stage Michael wore shoes that could be found in any store across America.

Bush says:

"Michael was a man of contradictions. His military jackets were tight and well-structured, yet they were stretchable and flexible. On the jackets, he hung royal insignia that suited rulers and shone beautifully on his dignified body. And those decorative beads and stones gave a humble man’s clothes a luxurious sparkle. And all of that flashiness was matched with a worn-out, out-of-fashion pair of comfortable slippers."

"He was used to dancing in these shoes. They were comfortable, and besides, they were the same cheap slippers he wore as a child—because his family could only afford such shoes."

Michael told Bush: "From the ankle up, do whatever you want, but don’t touch my shoes—don’t even polish them!"

Comfortable shoes were the most important thing for this dancer. When the tour ended, "the shoes on his feet looked like two pairs of socks."

Anti-gravity shoes

His shoes were generally cheap and ordinary—except for one pair!

For performing Smooth Criminal, Michael needed a special shoe that would break the law of gravity, and since nothing like it existed, he invented it himself. A magical shoe that, using this anti-gravity technique, displayed it on stage in front of the eyes of thousands of eager spectators, defying Newton’s law.

As mentioned, this technique was used to perform the Smooth Criminal dance. Michael and his dancers would lean toward the ground at a 45-degree angle.

The secret of this move was hidden in the structure of their shoes. There was a hole in these shoes that locked into specific clamps on the stage, allowing the dancer to perform this move.

This same move was performed in the 1987 Smooth Criminal video using a rope, which was removed in the editing of the film with the help of special effects.

Michael told Bush and Tompkins that to perform this move on stage, he needed such special shoes, and the designers built them for him. According to Bush, it took a month to prepare these shoes. According to Bush, after Michael tried the shoes for the first time, he started crying. He registered this invention in 1993.

Bush says that he didn’t find out until after Michael’s death that Michael had also registered his name and Dennis Tompkins’ name on this invention!

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, one month after Michael’s death in July 2009, displayed the documents related to this invention publicly at the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Alexandria City Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

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Source: eMJey.com / Reuters & Associated Press