Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson's Former Costume Designer Reveals All

Michael Bush worked for the Thriller hitmaker for over two decades and now he has opened up about their close fashion connection in upcoming book The King of Style: Dressing Michael Jackson, set to hit U.S. stores on 30 October (12).

He tells the Associated Press, "When you worked with him, you couldn't wait to get there and you didn't want to leave when you got done (sic). It was hard to imagine anyone that projected fashion and style any better."

But the 54 year old, who was trained in Ohio by his mum and grandmother, admits fitting the avid dancer was no easy task.

In an excerpt from the novel, he writes, "Michael was usually a 28-inch waist, but by the midpoint of the show, when he was ready to perform his magic act of choice, right before Beat It, he'd already lost five pounds (two kilograms) of water... If we didn't have clothes hanging on the rack in the right order that were getting progressively smaller, we'd risk him putting on a pair of pants that would fall to his ankles with each rhythmic move of his body And there is no magic in that!"

The designer also sheds light on Jackson's love of all things glitter, adding, "Sometimes I'd drive three hours to retrieve loose rhinestones straight from the factory, just because looking at them in that raw form pleased Michael to no end.

"Every time I opened the swatch of white felt that encased the rhinestones, he'd gasp. He'd take them from me and delicately move them around with his fingertips and whisper... 'Can you imagine being a pirate opening a treasure chest? And seeing all the glitter inside? What a fascinating life, to be a pirate like that.'"