The Jacksons’ Last Act
Deceased pop star Michael Jackson still has the Midas touch. Forbes magazine ranked him in the top nine moneymakers in its ghoulishly fun, annual “highest-earning dead celebrities” list, the last of which was released a few months after Jackson’s death in 2009. Designer and showroom owner Steeve Bohbot will soon find out if Jackson’s family has any of the same merchandising magic as its most talented scion.
At the Project show in Las Vegas Aug. 17–19, Bohbot debuts the J5 Collection, a fashion line devoted to the graphics and memorabilia of The Jackson 5, later known as The Jacksons, the group composed of Michael and his brothers, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon. Bohbot said this is the first fashion line licensed specifically by the Jackson family. Different members of the family have licensed their individual names to fashion lines in the past. Bohbot plans to sell J5 Collection to better boutiques and department stores.
The stars of this line are T-shirts bearing graphics and pictures of the brothers’ 1984 Victory tour and star-making events from the group’s 1970s and 1980s shows. T-shirts come in retro-style baseball concert shirts as well as more up-to-date slim-cut tees. As he was in life, Michael Jackson is at the head of the pack here. Remember the iconic orange-red leather jacket with zippers and metal mesh that Jackson wore when dancing in the 1982 video “Beat It”? Bohbot made a deal with Marc Laurent, the designer who created the original jacket, to reproduce the iconic jacket for the J5 line. Other jackets will include satin baseball jackets.
Bohbot got the ball rolling on this venture in 2009 while Jackson was still alive. Through a friend, he contacted Jackson family manager Danny O’Donovan. The manager set up a meeting with Jackie Jackson, who later gave him access to the family’s memorabilia, all of which filled up a ballroom in a Las Vegas–area hotel. The range of the memorabilia, some of which has not been made public, still boggles Bohbot’s mind. “I could have designed 30 lines from everything I saw,” Bohbot said. Core wholesale prices range from $16 to $44. The “Beat It” leather jacket wholesales for $240. For more information, call (213) 622-7750 or e-mail info@connectshowroom.com.—Andrew Asch
