Sequin jacket, tight pants, dark glasses, Michael Jackson cultivated a unique look. But the singer, who would have turned 62 on August 29, also wore a glove on his right hand. Far from being a fashion accessory, this glove was actually used to hide the skin disease from which he suffered.
Michael Jackson would have celebrated his 62 years on August 29. Died in 2009, the singer made history, as much for his music as for his inimitable look. A great fashion lover, the singer wears a glove on his right hand since the 1980s. A simple coquetry? Far from there. One need only compare the photos of Michael Jackson in his early days in the 1970s with the photos taken 15 years later to measure the extent of the change. The young black-skinned African-American man of the Jackson Five gradually turns into a white man. This extraordinary change has been discussed and commented on many times. And this famous glove is precisely one of the first signs of the disease from which the singer actually suffered: vitiligo.
This disease, also called leukoderma or achromia, is a skin condition that causes progressive depigmentation. White spots then appear on the body or face, before spreading. A disease from which the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is particularly affected. In the case of Michael Jackson, the first signs of the disease appeared on the hand, which explains why he chose to wear gloves very early on. As noted by our colleagues from Vanity Fair, Michael Jackson wears his famous crystal encrusted white glove Swarovski for the first time in March 1983. A glove sold for 350,000 dollars (235,000 euros) a few months after the death of Michael Jackson during a sale to auction At New York.
If the singer has already started do cosmetic surgery in the 80s, no one still suspected that he suffered from vitiligo. This glove is then seen as a fashion accessory, and soon a distinctive sign. It was not until 1993 that the star’s dermatologist Arnold Klein announced that the star had this disease.. Michael Jackson will confess it himself a few months later on the set of Oprah Winfrey.
Photo credits: ALPHA AGENCY / BESTIMAGE
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