Whatever you may think of Michael Jackson (the hypobaric chamber, the cosmetic surgery, the baby-dangling, etc.), you can't dispute that, in a more innocent era, the man had a lot of stylistic pull.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the so-called Michael Jackson jacket, red leather jacket with silver mesh venting at the shoulders. This jacket, for me, defines the mid-80s. First, everybody saw the jacket in the video for "Beat It" (still one of the greatest videos ever). Then everybody saw it in the video for "Thiller". Then -- miraculously, it seemed! -- it was available for retail purchase.

Needless to say, everybody -- or nearly everybody who listened to pop music, at least -- had one. And, lucky for us, all of these jackets have been put away, burned and/or donated.