Freddie Mercury's scarlet suede blouson jacket, belt and shirt, Late 1980s / 1990

Freddie Mercury's scarlet suede blouson jacket, belt and shirt, Late 1980s / 1990

A scarlet suede blouson jacket with batwing sleeves and padded shoulders, two zipped breast pockets, and two diagonal slit pockets, elasticated hem, red buttons to front fastening and cuffs, labelled inside on the lower left side seam ‘Vera Pelle’; a white cotton shirt with button down collar and breast pocket, labelled ‘St.Michael’; and a red leather belt decorated with cone-shaped white metal studs, fastening with white metal buckle, unlabelled

(qty 3)

Freddie is pictured wearing this jacket with Cliff Richard at the Dominion Theatre, London, April 1988 during rehearsals for a charity concert attached to Dave Clark’s musical Time. It was also worn for a publicity photoshoot with Queen at Metropolis Studios, 1990.

Freddie did not appear in the musical itself but recorded three tracks for the album soundtrack, the title track for which, ‘Time’, reached No. 32 in the UK singles charts.

In a 2021 interview with mark Chilton, Dave Clark recalls first discussing Freddie Mercury’s participation on the concept album of his 1986 musical, Time. “I chatted to Freddie and he reeled off all the names, saying, ‘You’ve already got Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Laurence Olivier, Cliff Richard… you’ve come a bit late there, dear!” 

See lot 59, Polaroid nos 162 and 163 for black and white images of Freddie wearing this jacket in Japan.

LITERATURE

Queen – The Complete Illustrated Lyrics, Backbeat Books, 2012, p.278 (illus.)