Editor’s Word: Delving into the archives of popular culture historical past, “Remember When?” is a CNN Model sequence providing a nostalgic take a look at the movie star outfits that outlined their eras.
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Bear in mind when Lionel Richie, flanked by 1984’s best pyrotechnics, closed out the LA Olympic Video games carrying a completely beaded jacket?
It was one in every of Richie’s first solo gigs after leaving funk and soul group the Commodores two years earlier. “I used to be simply getting my toes moist,” he informed the Related Press in 2020. “I believe I had carried out a pair Vegas reveals simply to heat up, however nothing like this.” He carried out a memorable 9-minute rendition of “All Night time Lengthy” to an estimated viewing viewers of two.6 billion, surrounded by a dancing entourage wearing a mixture of white tracksuits and crimson cheerleading mini attire. As they circled across the stage, a torrent of fireworks lit up the sky.
Whereas he would possibly now be related to a extra muted wardrobe, notably his revolving inventory of American Idol-approved leather-based jackets and black Anthony Thomas Melillo black T-shirts, Richie was as soon as a extra daring — or not less than dazzling — dresser. The unforgettable blue and silver beaded jacket he wore to the 1984 Olympics was cropped on the hips, with a silver piping across the collar and sleeves. He paired the assertion jacket, designed by the late Invoice Frank Whitten, with white pleated trousers, a silver sequinned shirt and an identical beaded belt.
Whitten was the creator of a lot of Elton John and Michael Jackson’s famend stage appears, together with Jackson’s iconic single white glove, or the crystal-encrusted socks he wore the primary time he moondanced to “Billie Jean” at a Motown live performance in 1983. Whitten’s aptitude for crystals, rhinestones and high-shine supplies was subversive to many at first, after a decade dominated by sensual velvet and silk. “After I got here into the enterprise the one man in a beaded jacket was Liberace,” Whitten informed the LA Instances in 1990. “No person had tasty beading for males. No person.”
The trailblazing garment is now on show for the primary time on the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame; a museum of music memorabilia in Cleveland, Ohio, the place it is going to sit inside a brand new exhibition celebrating the artists of 1984 — from Tina Turner, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen to Lionel Richie.
Whereas the unique piece won’t be in Richie’s possession, he has a model of it. In an interview with Coveteur journal in 2018, the worldwide celebrity opened his closet to disclose a blue sequined bomber jacket with the phrases “All Night time Lengthy” emblazoned throughout the again. “It’s actually a take from the 1984 Olympic jacket,” he said. “At that individual time, I used to be launching ‘All Night time Lengthy,’ and it simply occurred to be on the 1984 Olympics, and naturally, you simply can’t beat the colour. We took it and made a bomber jacket out of it, after which, simply to be fully camp with it, let’s put ‘All Night time Lengthy’ on the again of it!”
Out of all of the glittering medals received on the Video games that yr, maybe viewers keep in mind Richie’s high-shine closing ceremony efficiency essentially the most. Stood atop a shimmering gold podium in his luminous beaded jacket, it’s clear Richie was additionally going for gold.