shiny stuff

Michael Jackson Won’t Wear Balmain for His Upcoming Tour (Updated)

As the God of all things shiny, Michael Jackson’s burgeoning fondness for Balmain was inevitable. He’s already stepped out in at least two ladies’ Balmain pieces — a T-shirt from the fall 2009 collection and a jacket from the spring 2009 collection. French Vogue fashion director Emanuelle Alt is reportedly “obsessed” with Jackson, and introduced him to the label. The Imagist recently reported that “Emmanuelle would weep” if he wore Balmain onstage for his “This Is It” tour kicking off July 13. She can save those Kleenex for another event, because Jackson will not wear Balmain onstage, but rather Crystallized Swarovski Elements. It was the only other option, really, and Swarovski is too smart to pass up a golden marketing opportunity such as this. The costumes and sets will feature 300,000 crystals (which sounds like a relatively low number for someone as shiny as Michael) in 53 different shapes, 43 sizes, and 27 colors. If our math is correct — and we are not good at math anymore — he could wear up to 61,533 different kinds of crystals! We’d say that’s a decent Balmain substitute.

SHINING STAR [WWD]

Update: Michael Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest and reportedly died this afternoon at the age of 50. [TMZ]

Michael Jackson Won’t Wear Balmain for His Upcoming Tour (Updated)