Freddie Mercury's two-piece pink suit by Diana Moseley 'The Great Pretender' video, 1987, and western-style shirt

Freddie Mercury's two-piece pink suit by Diana Moseley 'The Great Pretender' video, 1987, and western-style shirt

A pale pink two-piece suit of dupion silk designed by Diana Moseley, made by David Chambers, the double-breasted jacket lined in ivory ‘silk’, with two flap pockets and one breast pocket to front, single vent to back, fastening with six imitation mother-of-pearl buttons, with four buttons at the cuff, the trousers with pleated front and concealed fastening, the waistband with striped ‘silk’ lining, both unlabelled; with a western-style shirt of aubergine ‘satin’, with peach trim, two jetted breast pockets and black press-stud fastening, labelled ‘Kenny Rogers, Western Collection by Karman’; and a pair of bright pink canvas high top Converse ‘Chuck Taylor All Star’ sneakers, size 9 (not worn in the video).

(qty 3)

According to Diana Moseley, this dupion fabric was selected from London department store John Lewis. She asked David Chambers to make up the suit and when she saw it for the first time was surprised that he had chosen to use the shiny side of the fabric rather than dull. She was delighted the outcome, however.

‘The Great Pretender’, originally released by The Platters in 1955, was a solo project by Freddie, recorded in January 1987 and released in February the same year. For the video, directed by David Mallett in February 1987, references are made to previous Queen videos featuring notable Freddie guises, ‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (see Lot 220), ‘It’s A Hard Life’ (see lot 224), ‘I Was Born To Love You’ (see lot 228), ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Made In Heaven' (see lot 231) and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ (see lot 203), emphasising his view of himself as ‘The Great Pretender’. It also featured Roger Taylor and actor and friend Peter Straker, alongside Freddie, as backing singers dressed in drag.

See also lot 256 for the backing singer costumes worn by Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Peter Straker; lot 257 for photographs by Peter Hince of Freddie wearing this suit; and lot 60 for personal photos showing Freddie wearing this costume with John Deacon in the futuristic car taken on set during filming.

LITERATURE

Freddie Mercury, The Great Pretender, Welbeck, 2020, pp. 133 & 134 (illus.)

Queen, The Complete Illustrated Lyrics, Backbeat Books, 2012, p.293 (illus.)

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