Freddie Mercury's evening suit designed by Diana Moseley, for the 'Barcelona' Video, 1988

Freddie Mercury's evening suit designed by Diana Moseley, for the 'Barcelona' Video, 1988

A two-piece midnight blue slubbed silk dinner suit, cut and tailored by David Chambers’, the single-breasted jacket with pointed lapels in corresponding silk satin, single back vent, jetted pockets and single breast pocket, four satin covered buttons to each cuff, and single satin covered button fastening, with two interior pockets, lined in blue satin, unlabelled; the corresponding trousers with pleated front and silk satin stripe to sides, the waistband with blue satin lining, unlabelled; with an aubergine silk cummerbund and matching pre-tied bow tie, both unlabelled, with a dress shirt, the back and sleeves of blue and black floral-patterned cotton, white double cuffs, the front of white pin-tucked cotton with wing collar, labelled ‘Harrods’; and a midnight blue satin pre-tied bow-tie, unlabelled - a photograph from around 1990 shows Freddie at his 44th birthday dinner, September 1990, at Garden Lodge, seated between Mary Austin and Barbara Valentin wearing this suit with an identical bow-tie

(qty 6)

‘Barcelona’ was a collaboration between Freddie Mercury and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. The city of Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics and Mercury was approached to write a theme song for the forthcoming games in the form of a duet with Caballé, who was from the city. Tragically Freddie wouldn’t live to see the opening ceremony, but he did perform, albeit miming, with Caballé in Barcelona at ‘La Nit’ Festival, 8 October, 1988 held to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic flag from Seoul, performing ‘How Can I Go On’, ‘Barcelona’ and ‘The Golden Boy’ wearing the evening suit in lot 267.  Both the ‘Barcelona’ single and album were a huge success and Freddie and Montserrat formed a close bond which continued after their collaboration had ended.

The suit and burgundy bow tie included in this lot can be seen in the ‘Barcelona’ video, on the 7” single cover, and also on the inside gatefold sleeve of the album in the montage of photographs, along with other notable Freddie outfits including those worn for the videos ‘Made In Heaven’ (see lot 56), ‘It’s A Hard Life’ (see lot 224) and ‘The Great Pretender’ (see lots 254 and 256) and the crown and cape (see lot 58).

For the front cover of the ‘Barcelona’ album shoot, Freddie wore the waistcoat and trousers included in lot 269, and the patterned bow tie in lot 2288, and for the back cover of the 12” release, Freddie wears the suit in lot 253, the shirt in lot 2274 and similar fuchsia pink espadrilles to those in lot 238. The blue bow tie included in this lot was worn with the formal navy lounge suit in lot 269 in a photograph selected for the front cover of his eponymous posthumous album, 1992.

See lot 2271 for a publicity photograph of Freddie wearing this suit, taken by Peter Hince.

LITERATURE

Freddie Mercury, The Great Pretender, A Life In Pictures, Welbeck, 2020, pp. 136 - 138

Queen, The Complete Illustrated Lyrics, Backbeat Books, 2012, p. 211 (illus.)

Bohemian Rhapsody, The Definitive Biography Of Freddie Mercury, Lesley-Ann Jones, Hodder, 2012, illus. between pp. 232-233 (Freddie’s 44th birthday dinner).

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