Michael Jackson’s Thriller Jacket is an iconic piece of pop culture history. The jacket was worn by Jackson in the music video for his 1983 hit “Thriller”. The jacket was designed by Deborah Nadoolman Landis and is candy-apple-red with black stripes and raised shoulders forming an inverted triangle.
The jacket became a major fashion trend in the mid-1980s and was widely emulated. Counterfeit copies of the jacket were even sold for over $500, leading Jackson to file a lawsuit in 1984 to prevent unauthorized copies of the jacket and his other merchandise.
In 2011, the jacket was sold at Julien’s Auctions for $1.8 million. The buyer was a Texan gold trader named Milton Verret, who described the jacket as “the greatest piece of rock and roll memorabilia in history”. Verret plans to use the jacket to raise money for children’s hospitals around the world and has already displayed it at the Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, Texas.
The proceeds from the jacket were donated to the Shambala Animal Kingdom, where Jackson’s Bengal tigers were housed when he left Neverland Ranch in 2006. The jacket remains a significant piece of music and fashion history, symbolizing the impact of Michael Jackson’s career and his unique style.
