Say what you will about Michael Jackson during the last few years of his life — and with the baby-dangling-out-the-window behavior, bad plastic surgery and child molestation allegations, a lot has been said — but it takes a certain kind of star to turn a single sequined glove into a cultural symbol.
During the Eighties and into the Nineties, Jackson, who died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles Thursday, became as much a trendsetter for fashion as he was for music. There’s the red leather motorcycle jacket he rocked in the “Beat It” video; the white ankle socks, black fedora and black loafers he wore when he moonwalked (and that walk alone is almost as legendary as Neil Armstrong’s); the military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses he toured in during the “Thriller” era; the white V-neck T-shirt that he always eventually stripped down to onstage, and finally, there was that glove, first worn during a performance of “Billie Jean” during a television special in 1983.