Behind the Wardrobe of Michael: An Evening with Costume Designer Marci Rodgers

I had the pleasure of attending a talk with Marci Rodgers, the costume designer behind the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael. So, naturally, I slapped on my best MJ merch and headed over to ASU FIDM for the event, hosted in collaboration with the Black Design Collective.

But first…

Before the talk, a group of children from Baldwin Hills elementary school gave us a surprise performance tribute to Michael Jackson , wearing his famous music video outfits from Bad, Remember the Time, Thriller, and every era in between. I personally counted 4 Smooth Criminals. They DID THAT!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous going in. This is the costume designer behind a billion-dollar film, tasked with telling the story of the world’s greatest entertainer through wardrobe. That is a huge deal. I had no idea what the person behind it would be like. Would she be snobby? Would she be surprisingly cool?

Immediately, all of those fears were quelled when Ms. Marci Rodgers got onstage. She was one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve encountered in the fashion industry. She was proudly from Chicago, and I immediately got that chill Midwest energy from her.

The Storyteller Behind the Costumes

One thing that stood out was her incredible storytelling. Every time she was asked a question, she painted a picture. She didn’t just give us, “Yes, I went to this school,” or, “This is how I got the job.” She brought us into her background and the experiences that shaped her.

What I gathered was how much her family influences her work. One detail that stuck with me: she said that, to this day, she has never seen her dad in a pair of jeans. He is always dapper whenever he leaves the house.

Another part of her story that inspired me was that costume design wasn’t a straight path for her. She spent eight years working as assistant director of admissions at Howard University School of Law before making the transition. Connecting with her mentor, costume designer Reggie Ray, helped her get her start designing for the stage.

Hearing that was a reminder that your career doesn’t have to follow one direct route.

Going the Extra Mile

Marci also shared that she wasn’t automatically guaranteed the costume designer role on Michael.

She spoke about visiting the Jackson family home in Gary, Indiana, not too far from where she grew up in Chicago, and seeing some of Michael’s costumes at the Hard Rock there.

She felt inspired to create a scrapbook of sorts and passed it along to producer Graham King. Hearing that, I couldn’t help but wonder whether that extra effort helped her land the role.

What stood out to me was that, from the way she told it, this wasn’t simply a move to impress someone or secure a job. It was something she genuinely felt inspired to create, whether she got the role or not.

And I’m so glad she did, because she absolutely nailed it, to say the least.

The MJ Wardrobe Facts That Had Me Shook

As a lifelong Michael Jackson fan, I wanted all the tea on her work on the film. What was it like recreating those iconic outfits? The Thriller look? The blue and gold jacket from the 1984 Grammys, where he’s holding all eight awards?

I thought I knew everything there was to know about MJ. Turns out, I got schooled.

The Grammys jacket was beaded

All this time, I thought that famous blue and gold Grammys jacket was covered in sequins. Marci shared that it was actually covered in bugle beads.

I could only imagine how heavy that jacket must have been for Michael to wear, on top of holding those eight Grammys.

The Thriller pants were Levi’s Jeans

My whole life, I thought the Thriller outfit was an all-leather ensemble. But Marci shared that, through conversations with members of Michael’s original team, she learned the pants were actually a pair of white Levi’s jeans dyed red.

I was flabbergasted. I’ve watched that music video a million times. What do you mean those are jeans?

After the panel, I went home and watched Thriller again. Sure enough, when I paused it, there were the pockets, rivets, and zipper details.

I was shook. But I ate all of this up.

Jaafar had Michael’s measurements

Another fun fact she shared was that Jaafar Jackson, who plays his uncle in the film, had the same measurements as Michael.

Between that and the wardrobe details, I was getting an entirely new appreciation for what went into bringing these looks back to life.

The Research Behind the Looks

One of my biggest takeaways was just how deep Marci’s research goes when she’s working on a film. For Michael, she compiled over 800 pages of research. Eight hundred pages!

She explained the difference between designing costumes for an original narrative and designing for a film about a real person. With someone like Michael Jackson, there are countless photos and videos documenting what he wore. People know these outfits. Some of us have been looking at them our entire lives.

Hearing her talk about approaching those two kinds of projects made me appreciate the level of care behind her work even more. She was studying the details of clothing that had already become part of Michael’s story, then figuring out how to bring them to life onscreen.

And as someone who thought she already knew those details, clearly there was still plenty for me to learn.

What I Took Away as a Stylist

I’m not a costume designer, and styling and costume design are very different roles. But storytelling is also at the core of my work as a stylist, so that part really resonated with me.

In the film, you see Michael go from a cute child star in the Jackson 5’s colorful ’70s costumes to a grown man coming into his own. The wardrobe helps tell that story.

You see the shift from the disco influence of Off the Wall into the early ’80s world of Thriller, then into the late ’80s Badera, where the film ends (Spoiler alert. JK, you should’ve seen it by now.). The iconic outfits and military jackets we’ve grown to know and love are part of that evolution.

Overall, I left completely enamored with Marci. She gained a new fan in me. I went in excited to hear about Michael Jackson’s wardrobe, and I left just as interested in the woman behind its recreation: her background, her storytelling, and the care she brought to every detail.