STILLS/Retna
#6: The Classic Suit—with a Twist
This look from 1988's “Smooth Criminal” video—a sharp white suit, worn with a blue shirt, white tie and a white-and-black fedora—was an explicit homage to his dance idol, Fred Astaire, who donned an almost-identical outfit in the 1953 musical The Band Wagon. (Astaire admired Jackson, too: “That’s the greatest dancer of the century,” he said of the pop star.) But the armband was all MJ: It’s been reported that the oft-present accessory was his way of remembering suffering children around the world.