We’ve always dressed the way we want to feel and it has led us to an era of costume. Military, Mafia or Ralph Lauren Prep, we’re all playing a part.
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you’re under no delusion that your style is original, Michael Jackson played them all.
So let’s revisit The King Of Pop’s most iconic outfits and their modern reincarnations (with a brownie points rating, of course).
80s Maximalism
The 80s are making a comeback. It’s hard to find a man in London who hasn’t at least contemplated a perm or a flow-cut mullet and if you’re of the Devil Wears Prada crowd, red with embellishments is back in business. But where have we seen that before?
In the brownie points hierarchy, his Beat It outfit body rolls into fourth place with 30 brownie points.
Preppy Boy Joy
Emerging Soloist Michael was often seen in checkered shirts and shawl neck sweaters. For the first albums, he sported simple, sharp suits with socks that contrasted like white, silver or red. What today might be called the Ralph Lauren aesthetic, solidified by Jaafar Jackson’s choice to partner with the brand for the Met Gala, embodies Michael’s style when his solo career was taking off.
This was a fun era of discovering his style but it’s also one that characterises 2026 as colour returns to our wardrobes. With 40 points, it goes in third place.
Smooth Criminal: Mob Boss Aesthetic
According to the Booktok crowd, Annie is actually getting her payback. While she was the victim in the music video, gangsters have fallen victim to popular culture and POV videos offering low-hanging fan-service fruit to a crowd that is guilty until proven innocent.
But it’s not all sexual. If you were looking for evidence that Michael Jackson influenced K-Pop, J-Pop, Anime and K-Dramas, you need only look at characters like Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer and military-style dances. But the white pinstripe suit inspired by 1930s gangsters and the less gangster Fred Astaire lands on top. It’s also not an unrequited love: Michael himself was appreciative of Japanese and Korean cultures, wearing various traditional Japanese outfits during his BAD tour and A Korean hanbok designed by Lee Young-hee at his Neverland ranch.
While the most iconic in my eyes, the modern iterations of the suited and dangerous trope has become fuel for smutty fanfics, so it does cheapen the atmosphere of what was his best look. I’ll have to put this one at second with 50 points.
MJ and Military Dress
A lot of MJ’s off-duty wardrobe is military with a lot more pizazz.
His military style was proof that disco never really died. Structured garments, gloves and shades with lots of shimmer are what we remember him for at award shows and in-the-wild encounters. They mark the making of The King Of Pop and the identity shift that came with it.
While every generation has found a way to bring Waterloo to their wardrobes, the military jacket is back in style this year and it feels no confidence that this coincides with an 80s resurgence and Michael, the movie of the year.
For its cultural relevance and ability to make a generation that was obsessed with oversized everything get a garment with some structure, it has to go first with 70 points.
brownie pts. 